THE 


LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 


OF 


HENRY  THOMAS  BUCKLE. 


BY 


ALFEED    HEJSTEY    HUTH 


'JTI7ERSI' 


u  I  am  dead ; 

Thou  livest;  report  me  and  my  cause  aright 
To  the  unsatisfied." 


NEW  YORK : 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY, 

1,  3,  AND  5  BOND  STREET. 
1880. 


k 


PKEFACE. 


DUTY  and  gratitude  oblige  me  to  acknowledge  the 
great  and  valuable  assistance  I  have  received  from 
nearly  all  of  Buckles  friends  and  acquaintances. 
Two  points,  not  valueless  in^an  estimate  of  Buckle's 
character,  have  been  brought  out  by  this  kindness  to 
me :  The  first,  that,  before  he  had  published  a  line 
of  his  work,  those  to  whom  he  wrote  invariably  kept 
even  the  most  trivial  of  his  notes ;  and,  secondly, 
so  great  was  the  friendship  which  he  inspired  that 
in  nearly  every  case  the  mere  mention  of  his  name 
after  his  death  was  sufficient  introduction  between 
those  of  his  friends  who  had  not  made  each  othW's 
acquaintance  during  his  lifetime.  The  alacrity  and 
kindness  I  have  experienced,  and  the  trouble  many 
—I  may  say  most  of  my  correspondents — have  put 
themselves  to  in  the  search  for  letters,  is  another  in- 
stance of  friendship,  which  has  lasted  eighteen  years 
beyond  the  grave.  I  am  particularly  indebted  to 
Lord  Kintore,  Lord  Kimberley,  Lord  Hatherley,  and 
Lady  Keay  ;  to  Mrs.  Grey  and  Miss  Shirreff ;  to  Ma- 


4  PREFACE. 

jor  and  Mrs.  Woodliead ;  to  Mr.  John  Buckle  ;  to 
Buckle's  heirs,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Allatt,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Clarke,  and  Mr.  Hutchinson ;  to  Mr.  Alex.  Hill  Gray ; 
to  Major  Evans  Bell ;  to  Miss  Kogers ;  to  Miss  Wheat- 
stone  ;  to  the  heirs  of  Mr.  Parker ;  to  Mr.  Henriquez ; 
and  to  the  late  Mrs.  Grote — who  have  all  given  me 
the  utmost  assistance  in  their  power,  in  letters,  oral 
communications,  and  in  notes. 

The  previous  sketches  of  Henry  Thomas  Buckle's 
life  have  been  few  in  number,  and  but  sketches.  The 
most  important  of  them  are,  an  article  in  "  Eraser's 
Magazine ' '  for  September,  1862  ;  one  in  the  ' '  Chess- 
Player' s  Magazine"  for  February,  1864 ;  one  in  the 
"  Atlantic  Monthly"  for  April,  1863;  a  letter  in  the 
"Athenseum,"  by  the  Kev.  J.  A.  Longmore ;  and  a 
biographical  notice  by  Miss  Helen  Taylor,  prefixed  to 
Buckle's  " Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  Works," 
of  which  an  important  part  was  contributed  by  Miss 
Shirreff.  To  Miss  Taylor  all  admirers  of  Buckle  and 
of  learning  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude.  I  have  compared 
the  manuscript  and  print  of  Buckle's  "Posthumous 
Works"  with  some  attention,  and,  though  I  have 
been  able  to  detect  a  few  misprints,  and  doubt  per- 
haps the  necessity  of  omitting  some  articles,  I  can 
conscientiously  say  that  the  task  is  admirably  done  ; 
the  arrangement,  short  of  entirely  melting  up  sepa- 
rate articles,  could  not  have  been  better;  while  no 
one  who  has  not  seen  the  MS.  can  fully  appreciate 
how  great  that  labor  was  which  she  has  so  freely  and 
gratuitously  bestowed,  and  by  which  she  has  accom- 
plished so  brilliant  a  success. 


PREFACE.  5 

There  was  yet  another  to  whom  I  am  indebted, 
who  now  is  but  a  memory  on  earth.  A  linguist,  a 
scholar,  acquainted  with  every  branch  of  knowledge, 
and  unrivaled  in  his  own,  Henry  Huth  took  a  par- 
ticular pleasure  in  the  society  and  speculations  of 
Buckle,  while  common  sympathies  and  mutual  re- 
gard soon  cemented  a  warm  friendship  between  them. 
It  was  natural  that  he  should  take  an  interest  in  the 
biography  of  so  great  a  friend,  and  in  the  work  of  a 
son  ;  but  only  those  who  knew  him  could  appreciate 
what  delicate  and  generous  a  help  it  was  his  pleasure 
to  supply.  A  premature  death,  when  these  pages 
were  almost  ready  for  the  press,  has  spoiled  the 
reader  of  the  benefit  of  his  revision,  me  of  any  plea- 
sure in  its  publication. 

ALFKED  H.  HUTH. 

December,  1879. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  1 9 

Apology— Ancestry— Kesidence— 111  Health  in  Youth— First  Books 
— Sent  to  School — Mathematical  Prize — Precocity  and  Backwardness 
— Sent  to  a  Private  Tutor — Office  Experience — Calvinism  of  Mrs.  Buc- 
kle—Death of  Mr.  Thomas  Buckle— The  First  Idea  of  the  "History" 
— Tour  in  Belgium,  Germany,  Italy,  and  France — Acquaintance  with 
Hallam — Chess  in  Paris — Draughts  in  Paris — Music  distasteful — Hie- 
rarchy of  the  Arts — Change  in  Keligious  Views — First  Entry  in  his 
Diary— Course  of  Study— Skill  in  Chess— Book  Purchases— Tour  in 
Germany,  Italy,  and  Holland — Color  and  Form — A  Ghost-Story — 
Illness — Choice  of  a  Profession — House  and  Library — Method  of 
Study — Languages  learned  —  Ambition  —  Composition — Smoking — 
Charity — Economy — Practicality — Thoughts  on  Education — Disap- 
pointments in  Love— The  First  of  "  My  Book  "—Tour  in  Brittany- 
Chess  Tournament  of  1851. 

CHAPTER  II 61 

Early  Scheme  of  the  "  History  "—111  Health  of  Mrs.  Buckle— Tour 
in  Ireland— The  Dublin  Chess  Club— Love  of  Society— Brilliancy 
of  Conversation — Eeady  Memory — Visit  to  the  Crystal  Palace — Mrs. 
Buckle's  Conversation— Letters  to  Mrs.  Grey  and  Miss  Shirreff—  Se- 
rious Illness  of  Mrs.  Buckle— Completion  of  Vol.  I.  of  the  "  His- 
tory " — Difficulties  of  Publication — Illness — Increasing  "Weakness  of 
Mrs.  Buckle— The  Dedication— Publication  of  the  "  History  "—Criti- 
cism. 

CHAPTER  III 139 

Carelessness  of  Critics — Free  "Will — Greater  Laws  including  Less- 
er—Influence of  Circumstances— Mental  Laws  the  Key  of  History 
in  Europe — Comparative  Influence  of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Prog- 
ress—The Claims  of  Eeligion,  Literature,  and  Government  as  Civil- 
izers— The  History  of  the  World  too  vast  to  be  undertaken  at  pres- 
ent by  One  Man— Why  England  is  chosen— Plan  of  the  Body  of  the 
"•  History  "—The  Qualities  needed  by  the  Historian— Mournful  Fore- 
bodings. 


8  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  IV ,    .     187 

"•«-. .— 

Only  Comparative  Originality  possible — Cornte  and  Buckle — Vito 
—  Machiavelli — Bodin — Bossuet  —  Montesquieu — Kant — Buckle — His 
place  in  History. 

CHAPTER  V 214 

Election  to  the  Athenaeum — To  the  Political  Economy  Club — 
Lecture  at  the  Eoyal  Institution — Success  and  Sorrow — Letters — 
Volume  II. — Anticipation  of  Death — Mill's  "Liberty" — The  Eights 
of  Women— Death  of  Mrs.  Buckle— Grief  of  her  Son— Pooley's  Case 
—"Letter  to  a  Gentleman  "—Illness— Stay  at  Blackheath— Kind- 
ness to  Children — Utilitarianism  and  Morals— Deatfi  of  his  Nephew 
— Stay  at  Carshalton — Further  Illness. 

CHAPTER  VI * 299 

Women  and  Knowledge — What  to  read — Fine  Arts  and  Civiliza- 
tion—  Immortality  —  Suicide — Stay  at  St.  Leonards  —  Dinner,  18th 
April — Volume  II.  approaching  Conclusion — Epochs  in  Literature — 
Further  Illness — Second  Stay  at  Carshalton — Conversation  with  Mrs. 
Huth— Tour  in  Wales— In  Scotland— Successes  of  the  "History" 
—Stay  at  Sutton— Preparation  for  Egypt. 

CHAPTER  VII. 354 

Eesponsibility — Kindness — Alexandria — C  airo — The  Nile — Educa- 
tion— Thebes — Talk  with  Mr.  Longmore — Nubia — Love  of  Antiquities 
— Preparations  for  the  Desert — Stay  hi  Cairo — Suez — Major  Mac- 
donald — Sinai — Petra — Jerusalem — Dead  Sea — Mill  on  Buckle — Na- 
bulus— Nazareth— The  Fatal  Illness— Visit  from  Mr.  Gray— Tiberias 
— Akka — Tyre — Sidon — The  Last  Letter — Beyrout — Damascus — Ill- 
ness increasing — Death. 

APPENDIX 459 

SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY  .        . 483 

INDEX  .        .        .        .497 


THE  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS 


OF 


HENRY   THOMAS    BUCKLE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Apology— Ancestry— Eesidcnce— 111  Health  in  Youth— First  Books— Sent  to 
School — Mathematical  Prize — Precocity  and  Backwardness — Sent  to  a  Pri- 
vate Tutor— Office  Experience— Calvinism  of  Mrs.  Buckle— Death  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Buckle— The  First  Idea  of  the  "  History  "—Tour  in  Belgium,  Ger- 
many, Italy,  and  France — Acquaintance  with  Hallam — Chess  in  Paris — 
Draughts  in  Paris — Music  distasteful — Hierarchy  of  the  Arts — Change  in 
Eeligious  Views — First  Entry  in  his  Diary — Course  of  Study — Skill  in 
Chess — Book  Purchases — Tour  in  Germany,  Italy,  and  Holland — Color  and 
Form — A  Ghost-Story — Illness — Choice  of  a  Profession — House  and  Li- 
brary— Method  of  Study — Languages  learned — Ambition — Composition — 
Smoking — Charity — Economy — Practicality — Thoughts  on  Education — Dis- 
appointments in  Love — The  First  of  "My  Book" — Tour  in  Brittany — 
Chess  Tournament  of  1851. 

IF  biography  be  a  form  of  literature  of  any  worth, 
then  surely  the  story  of  the  life  of  Henry  Thomas  Buckle 
needs  no  apology.  His  works  have  been  translated  into 
French,  German,  Spanish,  Dutch,  and  Russian,  and  have, 
in  addition,  been  reprinted  in  America ;  his  first  volume 
went  through  three  editions  in  a  little  over  three  years, 
and  yet  before  this  he  had  never  printed  one  line.  There 
is  hardly  another  instance  in  history  of  so  great  a  leap 
from  complete  literary  obscurity  to  the  highest  pinnacle 
of  literary  fame.  From  the  East  and  the  "West  poured 


10  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

inquiries  as  to  the  antecedents  of  the  gifted  author,  his 
fame  was  noised  abroad,  and  in  a  few  years  there  was 
hardly  an  educated  man  in  the  world  who  did  not  know 
his  name,  and  what  he  had  done. 

Nor  was  this,  as  is  so  often  the  case  with  those  who 
start  forth  suddenly  into  the  full  blaze  of  popularity,  a 
mere  fleeting  honor,  due  to  a  happy  chance,  and  doomed 
to  wane  and  die  in  the  course  of  a  few  years ;  it  was 
a  reputation  as  surely  as  it  was  slowly  founded,  owing 
nothing  to  circumstances  of  the  day,  and  only  recognized 
on  a  sudden,  because  Buckle  possessed  so  high  and  rare 
a  pride  that  he  would  rather  postpone  his  work  twenty 
years  than  endanger  an  otherwise  certain  fame  by  prema- 
ture publication.  So  far  from  being  due  to  a  happy  con- 
junction of  chances,  it  was  founded  on  but  a  part  of  what 
he  was  ready  to  do,  and  would  have  done  in  a  few  years 
more,  had  he  not  been  prevented  by  an  early  death  ;  while 
so  far  was  it  from  being  ephemeral,  that  not  only  has  it  be- 
come impossible  to  write  any  large  historical  work  without 
a  reference  to  the  "  History  of  Civilization  in  England," 
but  reviews  and  magazine  articles  on  his  works  had  not 
ceased  to  appear  fifteen  years  after  he  was  in  his  grave, 
while  there  is  hardly  a  speech  or  newspaper  article  on 
any  large  social  subject  which  does  not  contain  his  name. 
Nay,  I  have  even  seen  it  in  the  telegraphic  news  of  the 
"  Times  "  more  than  once,  and  within  the  last  few  years. 

Buckle's  family  had  long  resided  in  London.  There 
was  an  ancestor  of  his,  a  Sir  Cuthbert  Buckle,  who  was 
Lord  Mayor  in  1593,  and  originally  came  from  Bourgh, 
in  Westmoreland.  His  father  was  Mr.  Thomas  Henry 
Buckle,  a  partner  in  the  firm  of  Buckle,  Bagster,  and 


KESIDENCE— ILL  HEALTH  IN  YOUTH.  H 

Buckle,  large  ship-owning  merchants,  who  traded  more 
especially  with  the  East  Indies.  In  1811  Mr.  Thomas 
Buckle  married  Jane  Middleton,  of  the  Yorkshire  Middle- 
tons,  by  whom  he  had  three  children,  two  daughters  and 
a  son,  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  who  was  born  24th  Novem- 
ber, 1821,1  at  Lee,  in  Kent,  while  his  parents  were  on  a 
visit  to  his  father's  only  brother  and  partner,  Mr.  John 
William  Buckle.  They  soon  afterward  returned  to  their 
residence,  which  was  then,  according  to  a  common  custom 
of  merchants  at  that  time,  not  far  removed  from  the  place 
of  business,  in  Mark  Lane,  and  situated  in  a  quiet  part 
of  the  city,  a  fine,  large  corner  house,  "No.  2  Hamrnett 
Street.  Shortly  afterward  the  family  removed  to  35  Meck- 
lenburg Square,  a  corner  house  also ;  and  here  they  re- 
mained up  to  the  death  of  Buckle's  father. 

Young  Buckle  was  an  exceedingly  delicate  and  feeble 
infant ;  and,  as  a  child,  theugh  always  full  of  fun,  cared 
little  for  children's  games  or  children's  books.  Doted  on 
by  his  mother,  he  returned  her  love  with  all  the  wealth 
and  ardor  of  his  warm  and  affectionate  heart.  "  His  great 
delight,"  says  his  sister,  "  was  to  sit  for  hours  by  the  side 
of  his  mother  to  hear  the  Scriptures  read."  But,  although 
his  mother  bought  him  books  without  end,  he  felt  no 
interest  in  any  of  them  but  Shakespeare,  Bunyan,  the 

1  Curiously  enough,  Buckle  has  himself  made  a  mistake  as  to  the  date  of 
his  birth.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Theodore  Parker  he  says  he  was  born  in  1822. 
(See  Weiss's  "  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Theodore  Parker,"  vol.  i.,  p.  468, 
London,  1863.)  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Henry  Huth,  from  Jerusalem,  in  1862, 
he  correctly  states  his  age.  A  writer  in  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly  "  says  that 
in  conversation,  in  February,  1862,  "he  spoke  of  his  age  as  thirty-eight. 
(See  the  "Atlantic  Monthly"  for  April,  1863,  "Personal  Keminiscences  of 
the  late  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,"  p.  495,  note.)  The  entry  of  his  baptism 
may  be  seen  at  St.  Botolph's,  Aldgate,  May  IT,  1822. 


12  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  Arabian  Nights,"  and  "  Don  Quixote  " — "  books,"  says 
Buckle,2  "  on  which  I  literally  feasted."  Up  to  the  age 
of  eight,  indeed,  he  hardly  knew  his  letters.  He  then 
took  up  the  "  Arabian  Nights  " ;  and  Shakespeare  he  be- 
gan at  fifteen,  and  used  to  pass  hours  reading  and  crying 
over  it.  -  In  after-life  he  spoke  of  these  as  all  works  of 
genius,  and  remarked  that  it  was  curious  no  others  seemed 
to  move  him.  They  constituted  almost  the  whole  of  his 
reading  up  to  the  age  of  eighteen. 

Under  the  advice  of  Dr.  Birkbeck — "that  good  and 
wise  man,"  as  Buckle  calls  him  in  grateful  memory — he 
received  no  education  likely  to  tax  his  brain.  His  parents 
sent  him  to  school,  indeed,  as  a  change  from  home,  to  Dr. 
James  Thomas  Holloway,  Gordon  House,  Kentish  Town, 
but  with  instructions  that  he  should  learn  nothing  unless 
he  chose,  and  should  on  no  account  be  whipped.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  young  Buckle  did  not  choose.  In  the 
class  in  which  he  was  placed  he  learned  nothing  beyond 
what  fell,  as  it  were,  into  his  head  ;  but,  either  from  hav- 
ing nothing  else  to  do,  as  I  presume,  or  owing  to  the  spirit 
which  animates  all  clever  boys  to  learn  whatever  is  not 
taught  to  them,  he  watched  the  geometrical  and  algebrai- 
cal demonstrations  on  the  blackboard,  and  after  a  time  got 
so  interested  that  he  went  up  to  the  master  after  the  class 
was  over,  and  surprised  him  by  asking  an  explanation  of 
one  or  two  points  which  he  had  not  been  able  to  follow. 
Upon  this,  it  appears  that  he  was  allowed  to  join  the 
class,  for  he  returned  home  with  a  first  prize  for  mathe- 
matics. So  unexpected  a  distinction  pleased  his  father  so 

2  Weiss's  "  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Theodore  Parker,"  vol.  i.,  p. 
469. 


PKECOCITY  AND  BACKWARDNESS.  13 

much  that  lie  asked  him  what  he  would  like  best  as  a  re- 
ward. "  To  be  taken  away  from  school,"  was  Buckle's 
reply ;  and  his  parents,  probably  as  much  frightened  as 
pleased  at  what  he  had  done  at  school,  granted  his  request. 

He  left  school  in  his  fourteenth  year,  with  a  very  scan- 
ty stock  of  knowledge,  which  he  showed  off  at  the  request 
of  the  servants  in  the  kitchen.  Standing  on  the  table,  he 
recited  in  Latin  the  Lord's  prayer,  and  creed,  and  then  did 
the  same  in  French,  translating  afterward  sentence  by  sen- 
tence. He  ran  riot  through  the  house,  only  two  rooms, 
occupied  by  his  parents,  being  sacred  from  his  assaults. 
On  one  occasion,  for  instance,  he  turned  every  chair  and 
table  in  the  kitchen  over ;  gave  his  nurse's  daughter  a  pea- 
shooter, and  had  shooting-matches  with  her;  and  on  an- 
other occasion,  when  he  went  to  call  on  his  old  nurse, 
turned  everything  there  topsy-turvy,  romped  about,  threw 
the  daughter's  cat  out  of  the  window,  and  finally,  walking 
with  them  down  the  street,  sang,  and  was  generally  up- 
roarious, seizing  fruit  from  the  open  shops,  and  behaving 
so  as  to  make  them  quite  afraid  that  he  would  get  into 
trouble. 

But  though,  physically,  he  was  as  naughty  a  boy  as 
ever  a  mother  could  wish,  mentally  he  was  kept  as  quiet 
as  was  possible.  His  mother  even  taught  him  to  knit,  in 
order  that  he  might  have  some  occupation  which  was  not 
mental,  for,  compared  with  other  boys,  Buckle  was  unable 
to  do  anything  with  his  hands.  He  never  followed  any  of 
those  boyish  hobbies,  such  as  carpentering,  boat-making, 
etc.,  and  cared  nothing  for  boyish  games.  He  even  dis- 
liked associating  with  boys ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  talked 
with  grown-up  people  whenever  he  had  a  chance.  His 


14  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

chief  game  at  that  period  was  "  Parson  and  Clerk,"  which 
he  used  to  play  with  a  cousin  of  his,  a  boy  of  about  his 
own  age,  in  which  Buckle  would  always  preach,  and,  ac- 
cording to  his  mother,  with  extraordinary  eloquence  for  a 
child.  Perhaps  he  learned  this  art  from  his  attendance  at 
Exeter  Hall,  a  place  he  used  to  frequent  from  the  age  of 
fourteen  with  his  mother,  who,  at  one  time,  had  been  sur- 
rounded with  persons  holding  strict  Calvinistic  opinions, 
and  had  been  brought  over  to  their  views.  Her  son  natu- 
rally took  great  interest  in  what  interested  his  mother. 
"  The  natural  docility  of  children,"  he  remarks,8  "  renders 
them  for  the  most  part  ready  to  believe  all  that  they  are 
told ;  and  to  youth,  just  bursting  into  manhood  and!  igno- 
rant of  the  wiles  of  the  world,  there  is  something  singu- 
larly captivating  in  the  idea  that  they  are  espousing  the 
weaker  side."  Religion  and  politics  were  the  boy's  chief 
topics  of  conversation ;  in  the  latter,  of  course,  siding  with 
his  father,  who  was  a  strong  Tory,  but  he  went  beyond 
mere  theory,  and  took  a  strong  interest  in  the  elections. 
"With  his  father  too  he  loved  to  talk,  for  he  was  a  well-read 
man,  had  been  educated  at  Cambridge,  as  his  father  before 
him,  and  was  fond  of  reciting  from  Shakespeare  to  his 
family  of  an  evening. 

After  young  Buckle  had  been  home  for  some  time,  his 
family  made  another  attempt  to  send  him  away  for  educa- 
tion. He  went  to  a  private  tutor's,  and  there,  though  he 
never  seemed  to  learn  his  lessons,  he  was  always  foremost. 
His  health,  however,  failed,  and  again  he  had  to  be  taken 
home.  As  he  grew  older,  he  began  to  read  the  newspa- 

8  "  Fragments  on  Elizabeth,"  "  Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  Works," 
vol.  i.,  p.  417. 


OFFICE  EXPERIENCE.  15 

pers,  and,  notwithstanding  his  early  Tory  bias,  "  his  earli- 
est efforts,"  says  Miss  Shirreff,  "  took  the  shape  of  specu- 
lation on  free  trade,  the  principle  of  which  he  seemed  to 
have  seized  as  soon  as  it  was  presented  to  him,  in  the  dis- 
cussions then  rife  in  all  the  newspapers.  .  .  .  On  one  occa- 
sion, he  even  grew  so  excited  on  the  subject  as  to  sit  up  at 
night  to  write  a  letter  to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  which,  however, 
he  had  not  the  courage  to  send." 

As  his  health  was  now  again  restored,  and  he  was  sev- 
enteen years  of  age,  his  father  thought  it  high  time  he 
should  begin  a  profession,  and  placed  him  in  his  own  office. 
"  Mrs.  Buckle,"  says  Miss  Shirreff,  "  more  than  once  de- 
scribed to  me  her  dismay  when  she  found  it  impossible  to 
move  her  husband  from  this  resolution."  It  was  indeed  a 
wise  one ;  and  one  that  only  a  mother,  convinced  of  her 
son's  great  capabilities,  who  implicitly  believed  that  his 
was  a  mind  above  the  ordinary,  and  longed  for  the  day 
when  she  should  be  congratulated  by  all  the  world  on  be- 
ing the  mother  of  such  a  son,  would  have  opposed.  To 
see  him  buried  alive  in  an  office  was  too  dreadful,  and 
young  Buckle  himself  went  there  with  the  greatest  repug- 
nance. Years  afterward  he  looked  back  with  disgust  to 
the  time  he  had  passed  in  that  place  ;  nor  is  it  wonderful 
that  it  should  have  had  no  attraction  for  a  boy  already 
nearly  eighteen,  accustomed  to  do  very  much  as  he  liked, 
and  with  so  active  a  mind,  considering  that  the  first  six 
months  is  a  period  of  punctual  idleness  or  of  a  kind  of 
work  which  is  simply  mechanical.  Nevertheless,  referring 
to  this  period  in  after-life,  he  did  not  think  the  time  he 
had  passed  there  wasted.  It  had  given  him  a  certain  idea 
of  business,  which  is  better  acquired  by  even  a  few  months' 


16  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

presence  in  an  office  than  in  any  other  way ;  just  as  seeing 
a  few  chemical  experiments  actually  performed  will  teach 
more  than  the  most  persistent  reading  without  it  can  do. 

His  father  was  now  sixty-one  years  old,  and  had  been 
suffering  for  some  time  from  consumption.  His  disease, 
his  age,  and,  to  a  slight  extent,  the  difference  of  views 
held  by  himself  and  his  wife  on  religious  matters,  made 
him  grow  retired  and  absent-minded.  There  was  no  real 
estrangement ;  for  the  Calvinism  of  Mrs.  Buckle,  owing  to 
her  charming  and  womanly  nature,  did  not  interfere  with 
her  kindliness,  gayety,  and  affection.  She  herself,  indeed, 
suffered  much  from  her  cold  and  rigid  beliefs,  so  foreign 
to  her  tender  nature.  "  The  intense  suffering  caused  by 
this,  she  could  hardly  look  back  upon  with  calmness,  even 
at  the  distance  of  half  a  lifetime.  Yiews  full  of  terror  and 
despair,  with  their  wild  visions  of  vengeance  and  condem- 
nation, which  have  shattered  the  grace  of  many  a  noble 
mind,  wrought  into  hers  a  deep-seated  misery  which  no 
external  circumstances  could  alleviate,  and  which  only 
passed  away  when  she  had  conquered  her  own  freedom 
through  years  of  thought  and  study."  4  He,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  a  stanch  Churchman.  He  would  sit  alone  over 
his  port  the  whole  evening,  reading  a  good  deal,  but  chiefly 
theological  works ;  which,  perhaps,  helped  Mrs.  Buckle  to 
a  juster  appreciation  of  true  Christianity.  He  used  to 
pass  his  nearest  relations  in  the  streets  without  noticing 
them,  so  absent  did  he  become.  One  day  he  slipped  on 
the  curb  outside  his  door  and  broke  his  arm.  This  acci- 
dent, though  not  serious,  took  an  extraordinary  hold  of  his 

4  Miss  Shirreff,  p.  xxv.  of  Buckle's  "  Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous 
Works,"  vol.  i. 


DEATH  OF  MB. 


morbid  imagination.  It  gave  a  shock  to  his  already  totter- 
ing health,  and  he  firmly  believed  that  he  would  never 
recover.  Four  weeks  afterward  he  died,  on  January  24, 
1840,  his  last  words  being  addressed  to  his  son  when  he 
called  him  to  his  bedside  a  few  minutes  before  his  death, 
"Be  a  good  boy  to  your  mother."  Young  Buckle  was 
immediately  seized  with  a  fainting-fit,  and  taken  out  of 
the  room.  For  some  months  after  he  had  to  be  attended 
by  his  physicians,  and  had  frequent  attacks  of  fainting, 
with  great  prostration,  and  only  recovered  his  strength 
after  a  long  stay  in  Brighton,  whither  the  family  went  on 
the  death  of  Mr.  Buckle.  Soon  after,  Mrs.  Buckle  was 
advised,  both  for  herself  and  her  son,  to  try  entire  change 
of  scene  and  climate,  and  in  July,  1840,  she,  her  son,  and 
her  unmarried  daughter,  left  England  and  remained  a  year 
abroad. 

Left  in  independent  circumstances  by  his  father's  death, 
and  with  no  one  to  urge  him  to  continue  in  business,  he  of 
course  never  returned  to  the  office.  It  was  a  great  event 
in  his  life,  but  for  him  it  was  no  other  change  than  this : 
had  he  had  a  taste  for  and  remained  in  the  business,  he 
would  probably  have  become  as  famous  as  he  afterward 
became  in  a  higher  line.  For  a  man  of  genius,  the  work 
in  any  profession  will  demand  his  highest  industry  and 
highest  powers.  For  the  man  of  mediocrity,  the  work  of 
a  merchant  or  of  a  scientific  man  is  equally  open ;  and, 
whether  he  takes  up  the  one  or  the  other,  in  neither  will 
he  attain  celebrity  ahd  in  neither  will  he  fail.  If  he  has 
interest,  if  his  father  be  a  scientific  man,  with  scientific 
connections,  or  if  his  father  be  in  business,  with  business 
connections,  success  is  tolerably  certain  in  either,  the  only 
2 


18  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

difference  being  that  the  merchant's  is  generally  the  most 
paying  profession.  The  description — 

"  Hear  him  but  reason  in  divinity, 
And,  all-admiring  with  an  inward  wish 
You  would  desire  the  king  were  made  a  prelate  : 
Hear  him  debate  of  commonwealth  affairs, 
You  would  say — it  hath  been  all-in-all  his  study  : 
List  his  discourse  of  war,  and  you  shall  hear 
A  fearful  battle  rendered  you  in  music  : 
Turn  him  to  any  course  of  policy, 
The  gordian  knot  of  it  he  will  unloose 
Familiar  as  his  garter  ;  that,  when  he  speaks, 
The  air,  a  chartered  libertine,  is  still, 
And  the  mute  wonder  lurketh  in  men's  ears, 
To  steal  his  sweet  and  honeyed  sentences  " — 

is  a  eulogy  which,  though  of  course  not  applicable  at  this 
period,  was  very  applicable  in  later  life.  Practical  men, 
physicians,  merchants,  lawyers,  all  testified  that  he  could 
certainly  attain  high  distinction  in  their  own  professions ; 
while  his  power  of  oratory,  of  logical  arrangement,  and 
warm  and  fervid  eloquence  has  been  manifest  before  the 
public. 

The  idea  of  his  history  was  already  conceived,  "  dimly, 
indeed,  but  still  the  plan  was  there,"  as  he  says  himself  in 
a  letter  to  Theodore  Parker ; B  and  he  now  set  about  its 
execution  by  ardently  devoting  himself  to  the  study  of  the 
literature  and  languages  of  the  countries  through  which  he 
passed  with  his  mother  and  sister.  They  left  London  for 
Antwerp,  and  thence  went  traveling  about  to  Brussels, 
Liege,  Bruges,  etc. ;  spent  the  summer  at  Baden-Baden, 

6  Weiss's  "  Life,"  etc.,  vol.  i.,  p.  469. 


ACQUAINTANCE  WITH  HALLAM.  19 

Wiesbaden,  and  other  German  towns.  Then  they  went 
on  to  Switzerland,  and  so  down  to  Italy,  visiting  the  lakes. 
In  November  they  spent  a  month  at  Florence,  and  thence 
went  on  to  Home,  where  they  took  lodgings  and  remained 
up  to  the  beginning  of  April,  1841.  Wherever  they 
stopped  Buckle  engaged  masters  for  the  language ;  but 
soon  found  that  he  could  teach  himself  the  grammatical 
part  much  more  easily  than  he  could  learn  from  them,  and 
only  required  the  services  of  his  masters  for  practice  in 
conversation  and  for  pronunciation.  In  this  task,  however, 
he  was  never  very  successful,  speaking  foreign  languages 
with  a  strong  English  accent,  though  fluently  and  correct- 
ly. Nor  did  he  miss  any  opportunity  of  studying  the 
character  and  customs  of  the  people  in  whose  country  he 
traveled,  and  at  the  same  time  of  improving  himself  in 
conversation  with  them — a  habit  which  gained  him  the 
valuable  acquaintance  of  the  historian  Hallam,  whom  he 
met  while  traveling  on  the  Rhine.  Mr.  Hallam  being  in 
some  difficulty  on  account  of  his  ignorance  of  the  German 
language,  Buckle  interpreted  for  him.  They  got  into  con- 
versation, and  the  acquaintance  soon  ripened  into  an  invi- 
tation to  the  young  man  to  call  on  his  return  to  London. 
At  Rome,  again,  where  he  studied  Italian  with  another 
young  Englishman,  the  latter  was  greatly  astonished  at  his 
powers;  so  much  so  that  he  wrote  home  an  account  of 
him,  and  how,  do  what  he  could,  it  was  impossible  to  keep 
pace  with  him. 

From  Italy  they  posted  back  to  France,  and  took  up 
their  quarters  for  about  six  weeks  in  a  flat  in  the  Rue  de 
Rivoli.  Here,  besides  studying,  Buckle  used  frequently 
to  play  at  chess,  a  game  in  which  he  already  showed  very 


20 


BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 


considerable  power  and  depth  of  combination.  He  played 
Kieseritzki  at  the  Cafe  de  la  Regence,  and  even  the  re- 
doubted St.  Amant  himself.  Each  of  these  masters  gave 
him  a  pawn ;  but  each  was  beaten.  Later,  when  he  again 
visited  Paris  in  1848,  he  again  engaged  Kieseritzki  equal : 
and,  taking  these  games  with  former  ones,  beat  him.  Buc- 
kle was  proud  of  his  skill  in  all  games  not  dependent  on 
manual  dexterity.  It  was  in  Paris  that,  while  watching  a 
game  of  draughts  outside  a  cafe,  he  told  the  players  who 
had  just  drawn  it,  that  it  might  be  won  by  white  in  three 
moves.  They,  who  knew  nothing  of  him,  would  not  be- 
lieve him ;  upon  which  Buckle  made  a  bet,  and  won  it. 
The  exact  position  I  do  not  know,  but  it  was  something 
of  the  same  kind  as  given  in  the  annexed  woodcut."  At 


21 


29 


17 


25 


14 


22 


30 


26 


IB 


23 


31 


19 


27 


IG 


24 


32 


28 


Boulogne  they  stopped  again  for  a  few  weeks  on  their 
way  home ;  and,  not  satisfied  with  the  languages  he  was 
already  studying,  here  he  began  to  learn  Russian. 

6  White  12  to  16 ;  Black  20  to  11* ;  White  9  to  14 ;  Black  10  to  17*,  or 
18  to  9* ;  when  White  wins. 


MUSIC  DISTASTEFUL.  21 

During  these  travels,  his  sister  observed  that  he 
seemed  to  care  very  little  for  the  various  galleries,  and 
not  at  all  for  music;  indeed,  he  never  accompanied  his 
mother  and  sister  to  the  opera.  Once  only  in  his  life 
did  he  enjoy  it,  and  that  was  when  Franz  Liszt  played,  a 
performer  of  whose  influence  Heine  gives  some  account, 
and  by  whom  he  is  put  before  all  others  with  the  single 
exception  of  Chopin :  "  "With  this  single  exception,"  says 
Heine,  "all  other  performers  whom  we  have  heard  in 
countless  concerts  this  year  are  only  performers — brilliant 
merely  in  their  power  of  manipulation  over  the  wood  and 
wire.  But  when  Liszt  plays  the  piano  fades  utterly  from 
our  thoughts,  we  no  longer  think  on  difficulties  overcome 
— our  souls  are  bathed  in  music."  7  That  Buckle  should 
have  enjoyed  music  on  this  occasion  may  induce  us  to 
pause  a  little  before  we  put  down  a  want  of  sensibility  to 
the  influence  of  this  art  entirely  to  a  deficiency  of  musi- 
cal feeling.  Is  it  not  more  probable  that  in  such  cases  it 
is  due  to  the  imperfection  of  interpretation  ?  A  man  of 
fine  feeling  will  always  feel  shocked  at  a  coarse  daub  of 
a  picture,  even  if  he  had  no  artistic  education.  In  the 
same  way,  many  a  man  will  feel  the  beauty  of  a  Raphael, 
a  Titian,  or  a  Hubens,  who  utterly  fails  to  interpret  the 
ill-drawn  forms  of  an  early  master.  There  is,  moreover, 
no  doubt  that  music  is  the  most  unnatural  of  all  the  arts. 
Music,  painting,  sculpture,  and  poetry,  are  unnatural  in 
proportion  as  they  are  idealized ;  and  of  this  the  first  is 
most,  the  last  is  least  so.  Hence  it  is  that  though  in  lit- 
erature all  the  world  is  one,  in  poetry  they  are  less  united, 
and  so  on  in  an  increasing  series  until  we  get  to  music, 

7  H.  Heine,  "  Sammtliche  Werke,"  Hamburg,  1862,  vol.  xi.,  p.  329. 


22  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

which  is  entirely  different.  "We  can  follow  the  philoso- 
phy of  the  Chinese,  but  their  music  we  would  rather  be 
without ;  we  admire  the  poetry  of  the  Arabs,  but  shrink 
from  what  they  most  admire  in  music  ;  and  they  too  read 
our  books  as  we  read  theirs,  and  fly  from  what  we  call 
music,  as  we  fly  theirs.  In  our  own  society  there  are 
twenty  men  who  admire  a  picture  to  one  who  really  en- 
joys music ;  more  who  admire  fine  sculpture  than  a  pic- 
ture, and  more,  again,  who  enjoy  literature  than  any  art ; 
and,  were  any  further  proof  necessary  of  this  order  of 
development  in  the  arts,  we  should  find  it  in  their  his- 
tory in  the  various  nations.  Who  can  tell  but  that  Drew, 
Watt,  and  Hunter,  Scott,  Niebuhr,  and  Arnold,  Johnson 
and  Dryden,  Burke,  Pitt,  Fox,  Lord  Holland,  and  many 
others,  who  all  disliked  the  music  of  their  day,  and,  in- 
deed, could  hardly  tell  one  note  from  another,  might  not 
have  enjoyed  music  if  better  interpreted  ;  or,  at  all  events, 
if  they  had  lived  in  a  later  age  when  music  Avill  be  fur- 
ther advanced?  As  a  rule,  music  was  mere  noise  to 
Buckle,  and  he  could  not  tell  one  tune  from  another. 
Once  he  thought  he  did  recognize  an  air  for  "  God  save 
the  Queen  "  ;  but  it  turned  out  to  be  "  Rule  Britannia." 
There  are  several  notes  on  the  subject  in  his  "  Common- 
place Book,"  e  such  as :  "  Some  idiots  will  whistle  tunes 
correctly.  Georget  mentions  an  idiot  seven  years  old  who 
had  an  extraordinary  facility  for  learning  the  airs  of  songs. 
.  .  .  Luther  tells  us  that  the  devil  -can  not  bear  music." 
And  again,  in  the  note  on  the  life  of  Arnold,  he  has — 
"  Lord  Brougham  says  of  Fox  and  Lord  Holland,  '  Music 
was  positively  disagreeable  to  them  both;  a  remarkable 

6  For  example,  Arts,  277,  2211. 


CHANGE  IN  KELIGIOUS  VIEWS.  33 

instance  of  Shakespeare's  extravagant  error  in  a  well- 
known  passage  of  his  plays.' ':  And  when  this  passage 
of  Shakespeare  was  quoted  against  him.  by  Mrs.  Wood- 
head,  he  retorted,  "  Yes,  but  see  in  whose  mouth  Shake- 
speare puts  it,  the  mouth  of  a  silly  youth." 

From  this  journey  he  returned  very  much  altered. 
From  a  somewhat  narrow  low-churchman  and  Tory,  he 
had  become  a  freethinker  and  a  radical — the  first  change 
probably  produced  in  Germany ;  and  the  latter,  possibly, 
by  his  reading,  his  view  of  foreign  interference  and  des- 
potism, and  his  residence  in  Paris.  He  had  begun  his 
education  thus  by  himself,  and  had  full  confidence  in  his 
self-educating  powers.  He  might  have  gone  to  the  uni- 
versity, but  certainly  an  English  university  at  that  time 
was  the  last  place  he  would  have  thought  of  going  to.  In 
his  History 9  he  observes :  "  What  a  war  Locke  would 
wage  against  our  great  universities  and  public  schools, 
where  innumerable  things  are  still  taught  which  no  one 
is  concerned  to  understand,  and  which  few  will  take  the 
trouble  to  remember !  .  .  .  We  often  find  what  are  called 
highly  educated  men,  the  progress  of  whose  knowledge 
has  been  actually  retarded  by  an  education  by  which  their 
reading  has  deepened  their  prejudices  instead  of  dissipat- 
ing them." 

We  might  have  had  a  much  fuller  account  of  this  most 
important  period  of  his  life  had  he  not  destroyed  the  let- 
ters he  wrote  to  his  mother.  For  in  his  diary  is  the  entry 
under  January  23,  1855,  "  Eead  and  destroyed  some  old 
letters  of  mine,  written  fifteen  years  ago."  Captain  Ken- 
nedy, who  made  his  acquaintance  in  Jun"e,  1841,  says:  UI 

9  Vol.  L,  p.  246.     See  note  30,  p.  44. 


24:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

remember,  in  that  early  time  of  our  acquaintance,  being 
struck  by  the  bold  originality  and  grasp  of  thought,  the 
variety  and  extent  of  general  knowledge  possessed  by  the 
pale,  delicate-looking  stripling,  who  might  have  passed  for 
a  year  or  two  younger  than  he  really  was.  He  was  an 
omnivorous  reader,  no  book  of  any  kind  seeming  to  come 
amiss  to  him ;  and  he  had  the  power,  accorded  to  few,  of 
plucking  out,  as  it  were,  the  heart  of  a  book  by  doing 
little  more  than  turning  over  the  pages,  with  here  and 
there  an  occasional  halt.  I  remember  his  borrowing  of 
me  Burder's  "  Oriental  Literature,"  a  two- volume  octavo, 
of  anything  but  light  reading.  He  brought  it  back  next 
day,  whereon  I  remarked  that  I  supposed  it  did  not  inter- 
est him.  He  said  he  had  read  it,  and  began  to  expatiate 
on  its  contents  in  a  way  which  satisfied  me  that  he,  at  any 
rate,  knew  more  about  them  than  I  did."  10 

The  first  entry  that  we  have  in  his  diary  is  on  the  15th 
October,  1842,  as  follows :  "  Being  this  day  settled  in  my 
new  lodgings,  No.  1  Norfolk  Street,  I  determined  to  keep 
a  journal  of  my  actions — principally,  for  the  sake  of  being 
able  to  review  what  I  have  read,  and  consequently  to  esti- 
mate my  own  progress.  My  reading  has,  unfortunately, 
been  hitherto,  though  extensive,  both  desultory  and  ir- 
regular. I  am,  however,  determined  from  this  day  to 
devote  all  the  energies  I  may  have,  solely  to  the  study 
of  the  history  and  literature  of  the  middle  ages.  I  am 
led  to  adopt  this  course,  not  so  much  on  account  of  the 
interest  of  the  subject — though  that  is  a  great  inducement 
— but  because  there  has  been,  comparatively  speaking,  so 

10  "  Mr.  Buckle  as  a  Chess-Player."     In  the  "  Westminster  Papers,"  vol. 
Ti.,  p.  24.     No.  62,  for  2d  June,  1873. 


FIRST  ENTRY  IN  HIS  DIARY.  25 

little  known  and  published  upon  it.  And  Ambition  whis- 
pers to  me  the  flattering  hope  that  a  prolonged  series  of 
industrious  efforts,  aided  by  talents  certainly  above  medioc- 
rity, may  at  last  meet  with  success.  To  return,  however, 
to  my  journal.  I  rose  this  morning  at  half -past  seven, 
and  from  eight  till  nine  was  occupied  in  unpacking  and 
arranging  my  books,  clothes,  etc.  At  nine  I  breakfasted, 
and  after  that  commenced  this  journal  which,  what  with 
writing  a  letter  to  Mr.  S ,  and  doing  other  little  mat- 
ters, occupied  my  time  until  half-past  ten.  From  half- 
past  ten  till  half -past  twelve  I  read  f  The  History  of  the 
Middle  Ages,'  published  in  Lardner's  c  Cyclopaedia,'  two 
volumes,  first  to  thirteenth  page — referring  at  same  time 
to  Hallam,  as  also  to  Hawkins's  little  work  on  Germany 
for  verification  of  dates.  This  brings  me  from  the  inva- 
sion of  Clovis  in  496  to  the  murder  of  Sigebert  by  Frede- 
gonde  in  5T5.  I  have  at  the  same  time  made  copious 
abstracts  of  the  times  alluded  to.  In  Lardner's  '  History ' 
Clotaire  is  called  the  second  son  of  Clovis  (see  p.  11,  vol. 
ii.)  and  Hallam  says  he  was  the  youngest  (p.  3,  vol.  i.). 
Hallam  is  doubtless  accurate,  as,  besides  his  high  reputa- 
tion, the  '  History '  published  by  Lardner  show  signs  of 
great  carelessness  in  such  small  things  as  a  vowel  cut  off 
from  a  name,  as  Fredegund,  instead  of  Fredegonde,  etc., 
and  another  great  blemish  is  that  the  authorities  are  rarely 
or  never  given  at  the  bottom  of  the  page  in  support  of  an 
alleged  fact — and,  besides  all  this,  his  style  is  heavy  and 
apparently  labored." 

This  entry  is  very  interesting,  as  it  fixes  the  date  of 
the  plan  mentioned  in  a  note  in  his  chapter  on  Spain.11 

11  "  History  of  Civilization  in  England,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  137,  note  337. 


26  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

"  At  one  time  I  had  purposed  tracing  the  history  of  the 
municipal  and  representative  elements  during  the  fif- 
teenth century,  and  the  materials  which  I  then  collected 
convinced  me  that  the  spirit  of  freedom  never  really 
existed  in  Spain."  It  is  very  possible,  indeed,  that  we 
may  here  trace  the  influence  of  Mr.  Hallam  (with  whom 
and  his  promising  son  Buckle  became  very  intimate)  in 
fixing  his  wavering  purpose  on  a  particular  point.  But  it 
is  very  evident  from  the  entry  in  the  diary  that  this  his- 
tory would  have  had  a  strong  smack  of  the  "  History  of 
Civilization,"  nay,  that  it  included  germs  which  must 
inevitably  grow  until  he  saw  with  despair  the  horizon 
receding  as  he  advanced,  and  was  compelled,  unwillingly 
and  sick  at  heart,  to  restrict  himself  within  limits  which 
could  but  feebly  express  his  bold  views  and  wide  sweep  of 
generalization.  Even  now,  however,  he  could  not  restrict 
himself  to  the  period  upon  which  he  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  write.  Ten  days  after  the  above  entry  was  made 
he  looks  back  on  what  he  has  done :  "  The  sketch,  then, 
of  the  history  of  France  during  the  middle  ages  has  occu- 
'  pied  me  just  ten  days — but,  then,  on  one  of  those  days  I 
did  not  read  at  all  [on  account  of  a  thick  fog] — and,  be- 
sides that,  I  am  now  in  better  train  for  reading  than  I 
was  at  first.  So  that  I  think,  on  an  average,  I  may  say 
eight  days  will  suffice  in  future  for  each  history.  It  is 
my  intention  to  go  first  in  this  hasty  and  superficial  way 
through  European  history  of  the  middle  ages,  and  then, 
reading  the  more  elaborate  works,  make  myself  as  much  a 
master  of  the  subject  as  is  possible,  considering  the  meager 
information  we  at  present  possess."  The  works  he  had  been 
reading  on  the  subject  were,  besides  those  already  men- 


COURSE  OF  STUDY.  27 

tioned,  Gibbon  and  Lingard  upon  these  times.  The  "  more 
elaborate  works "  were  doubtlessly  such  books  as  state 
papers,  plays,  privy-purse  expenses,  ballads,  or,  in  a  word, 
the  usual  authorities  used  by  such  writers  as  Hallam  and 
Macaulay,  and  absolutely  necessary  to  any  one  who  intended 
to  write  on  the  manners  of  the  people,  the  state  of  science, 
and  the  state  of  the  country,  so  as  to  place  a  sort  of  living 
picture  before  his  readers  of  Europe  during  the  middle  ages. 
As  soon  as  he  had  finished  with  France,  he  went  on  to 
Germany.  «  Wednesday,  26th  October,  1$42.—  Did  not 
breakfast  till  ten.  From  half -past  ten  to  half-past  eleven 
finished  my  chronological  abridgment  of  French  history, 
and  from  half -past  eleven  till  a  quarter  to  one  looked  super- 
ficially through  the  histories  of  Italy  and  Germany  during 
the  middle  ages,  to  determine  which  would  be  the  most 
advisable  to  read  first.  I  have  determined  upon  Ger- 
many." But  two  days  afterward  he  began  the  study  of 
Italian  history  conjointly  with  that  of  Germany.  On  Oc- 
tober 31st  we  find  him  taking  up  Kussian  again,  which 
he  had  begun  at  Boulogne.  "At  present,"  he  says,  "I 
know  of  the  Russian  language  absolutely  nothing."  He 
had  a  lesson  on  the  Tuesday,  "  entirely  confined  to  read- 
ing. In  pronunciation  I  find  greater  difficulties  than  I 
could  have  believed  possible  to  have  existed  in  any  lan- 
guage— I  am,  however,  determined  to  conquer  them." 
He  studied  every  day  to  November  12th,  soon  after  which 
date  he  went  to  Boulogne  to  stop  with  his  mother,  who 
had  taken  a  house  there.  Here  he  continued  his  Russian  by 
himself,  and  took  lessons  in  German  conversation ;  bought, 
besides,  a  Spanish  and  a  Portuguese  grammar,  tried  to  get 
a  Dutch  grammar,  but  in  vain  ;  played  whist  nearly  every 


28  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

evening,  and  returned  to  London  at  the  beginning  of  De- 
cember. During  this  absence  he  had  apparently  given  up 
his  lodgings,  for  on  his  return  he  went  to  stay  with  his  mar- 
ried sister,  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  in  Albany  Street,  where  he 
had  a  room  fitted  up  with  book-shelves  for  his  private  use. 

His  chief  relaxation  was  chess,  to  which  he  gave  the 
greater  part  of  his  afternoons,  and  he  also  played  whiat 
very  frequently.  Indeed,  he  was  a  first-rate  player  of  all 
games  of  mental  skill.  Captain  Kennedy  says  that  al- 
ready, in  1841,  his  chess-play  was  exceedingly  strong ;  and 
Buckle  considered  his  whist-play  even  better  than  his 
chess.  The  following  extracts  from  his  diary  will  give 
some  idea  of  what  he  did :  "  "Went  then  (four  o'clock)  to 
the  club,  and  played  three  games  with  Mr.  Fonblanque, 
of  which  I  won  two.  Dined  at  a  coffee-house,  and  after- 
ward played  a  match  game  with  Mr.  Tuckett,  giving  him 
the  pawn  and  move,  which  was  drawn.  He  is  nine  to  my 
seven."  12  And  again :  "  Feeling  unwell,  went  to  club, 
where  I  played  five  games  with  Mr.  Thrupp,  all  of  which  I 
won ;  and  one  with  Mr.  Dennis,  which  I  also  won.  Dined  at 
coffee-house,  and  went  to  divan,  where  I  played  two  games 
with  Mr.  Rogers,"  to  whom  he  gave  odds,  and  by  whom  he 
was  beaten.13  It  was  here  that  he  generally  played,  when 
he  was  in  town,  going  there  nearly  every  evening. 

Captain  Kennedy,  of  all  his  friends  the  one  most  capa- 
ble of  giving  an  account  of  Buckle's  play,  says :  "  Nature 
had  gifted  him  with  a  superlative  aptitude  for  the  game 
of  chess,  and  he  brought  the  powers  of  a  rare  intellect — 
clear,  penetrating,  and  sagacious  beyond  that  of  most  men 
— to  bear  upon  it.  His  imagination  was  that  of  the  poet, 

12  "Diary,"  16th  December,  1842.         13  "Diary,"  28th  January,  1843. 


SKILL  IN  CHESS.  29 

'  all  compact/  but  subservient  to  the  dictates  of  a  logical 
judgment.  His  combinations  accordingly,  under  such 
guidance,  seldom,  if  ever,  exhibited  a  flaw,  and  were  char- 
acterized by  exactitude  of  calculation  and  brilliant  device. 
He  excelled  in  pawn-play,  which  he  conducted  with  an 
ingenuity  and  deadly  accuracy  worthy  of  the  renowned 
pawn  general,  Szen.  He  gave  large  odds,  such  as  Rook 
and  Knight,  with  wonderful  skill  and  success,  appearing 
to  have  a  sort  of  intuitive  knowledge  of  a  strange  oppo- 
nent's chess  idiosyncrasy,  which  enabled  him  precisely  to 
gauge  the  kind  of  risks  he  might  venture  to  run.  The 
rendering  of  heavy  odds,  as  every  experienced  chess-player 
knows,  necessitates  hazardous  and  unsound  play  on  the 
part  of  the  giver.  These  contests  of  his  at  odds  were  al- 
ways full  of  interest  and  entertainment  to  lookers-on,  and 
a  gallery  two  or  three  deep  often  surrounded  his  board  in 
the  Strand  Divan,  where  it  was  his  '  custom  in  the  after- 
noon '  to  recreate  himself  with  his  favorite  game.  I  have 
occasionally  seen  roars  of  laughter  elicited  from  the  spec- 
tators by  the  crestfallen  aspect  of  some  poor,  discomfited 
Rook-player,  who,  with  much  care  and  solicitude,  having 
obtained,  as  he  fondly  believed,  an  impregnable  position, 
had  suddenly  found  his  defenses  scattered  like  chaff,  and 
himself  accommodated  with  a  mate,  after  the  sacrifice,  by 
his  keen-witted  opponent,  of  two  or  three  pieces  in  succes- 
sion. Whether  winning  or  losing,  Mr.  Buckle  was  a  cour- 
teous and  pleasant  adversary,  and  sat  quietly  before  the 
board,  smoking  his  cigar,  and  pursuing  his  game  with  in- 
flexible steadiness." 

It  must  be  acknowledged,  however,  that,  if  Buckle's 
temper  in  chess  was  so  perfect,  he  avoided  giving  it  too 


30  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WHITINGS. 

severe  a  trial.  "  On  one  occasion,"  says  Captain  Kennedy, 
"  when  lie  was  asked  the  ground  for  his  refusal  to  play  with 
an  extremely  slow  player,  whose  tediousness  had  obtained 
him  the  cognomen  of  *  the  Telegraph,'  Mr.  Buckle,  in  his 
own  peculiar  sententious  manner,  gave  utterance  to  the 
following  reply :  '  "Well,  sir,  the  slowness  of  genius  is  dif- 
ficult to  bear,  but  the  slowness  of  mediocrity  is  intolerable.' 
It  is  said,  but  with  how  much  truth  we  know  not,  that  from 
the  time  when  this  speech  was  reported  to  c  the  Telegraph ' 
he  was  notable  for  fitful  and  hurried  play."  14 

Although  there  are  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  his 
games  in  print,  it  would  be  unfair  to  Buckle's  powers 
to  judge  them  by  these ;  for,  as  Captain  Kennedy  justly 
points  out,  "  besides  the  fact  that  his  best  games  did  not 
get  into  print,  chess  was  only  a  recreation  to  him,  and,  un- 
willing to  occupy  his  valuable  time  with  the  study  of  new 
variations  in  openings  or  printed  games,  he  almost  invaria- 
bly opens  in  his  later  published  games  with  the  safe  Giuoco 
Piano,  when  he  has  the  move,  and  irregularly  as  second 
player."  "  At  one  time,"  continues  the  Captain,  "  I  have 
reason  to  think  that  he  did  not  even  possess  a  chess-board. 
I  had  been  dining  with  him  at  his  house  at  Oxford  Ter- 
race, and  asked  him,  after  dinner,  to  look  at  a  position  in 
some  game  which  interested  me.  After  searching  awhile, 
to  my  surprise  and  amusement  he  produced  an  ancient 
little  backgammon-board,  on  which  we  set  up  a  tall,  shaky 
family  of  red  and  white  bone  chess-men,  much  too  large 
for  the  board."  10 

14  "  Westminster  Papers,"  vol.  vi.,  pp.  23,  24;  No.  62,  for  July  2, 1873; 
and  vol.  i.,  p.  10,  No.  1,  for  April,  1868. 

15  "  Westminster  Papers,"  vol.  vi.,  pp.  23,  24. 


BOOK  PURCHASES.  31 

Much  time  was  besides  given  to  reading  catalogues, 
and  in  walking  all  over  London,  searching  for  and  buying 
books,  which,  though  cheap,  cost  him  a  considerable  part 
of  his  income.  As  an  instance  I  give  the  following: 
"Bought  Caird's  'Life  of  Charlemagne,'  whole  bound, 
very  neat,  1  vol.,  2s.  6d. ;  Crabb's  { History  of  Common 
Law,'  1  vol.,  8vo,  bds.,  As. ;  '  Barrington  on  More's  An- 
cient Statutes,'  1  vol.,  8vo3  calf,  2s.  Qd. ;  Mills's  '  Travels 
of  Theodore  Ducas,'  2  vols.,  8vo,  in  boards,  only  2s. ;  also 
Johnson's  c  Memoirs  of  John  Selden,'  one  vol.,  8vo,  new 
bds.,  uncut,  portrait,  only  2s.  These  last  two  books  were 
bought  at  Stocklers',  who,  when  he  has  anything  to  sell, 
is  extremely  cheap." "  Again :  "  Went  to  Bohn's,  in 
York  Street,  Covent  Garden,  where  I  purchased  "Watts's 
c  Bibliotheca  Britannica,'  a  rather  scarce  work,  for  which 
I  paid  seven  guineas."  "  "  To  Holywell  Street,  to  look 
among  the  bookstalls  there,  but  only  bought  a  copy  of 
6  [The]  History  of  Helvetia,'  two  vols.,  8vo,  for  which  I 
paid  Is.  6d. ! ! ! "  He  was  not  content  with  going  about 
the  bookstalls,  but  made  comparative  lists  of  the  books 
he  wanted  from  booksellers'  catalogues,  with  the  prices,19 
and  bought  also  at  Sotheby's.30 

In  this  way  he  went  on  steadily  reading  on  the  history 
of  the  middle  ages,  buying  books,  and  playing  chess. 

On  the  7th  March,  1843,  he  writes  :  "  Began  my  Life 
of  Charles  I.,"  which  he  worked  at  daily  up  to  3d  April 
with  but  three  days'  intermission.  It  is  probable  that  this 
paper  has  been  destroyed  or  incorporated  with  the  "  Frag- 

16  "  Diary,"  16th  January,  1842.         17  "  Diary,"  7th  December,  1842. 

18  "Diary,"  17th  December,  1842.      19  "Diary,"  llth  January,  1843. 

20  E.  g.,  26th  January,  1843,  ib. 


32  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

merits " ;  for  though  there  is  an  article  on  Charles  I. 
extant,  for  several  reasons  I  can  not  think  with  Miss 
Taylor  that  this  may  be  the  article  in  question.21 

He  was  thus  engaged  when  his  mother  and  sister  came 
up  to  town,  the  latter  being  about  to  be  married,  and  on 
April  4:th  suddenly  determined  to  accompany  the  former, 
who  was  going  on  to  Boulogne,  and  afterward  travel  on 
through  Holland.  He  first  bought  a  Dutch  grammar  and 
dictionary,  and  then  informed  his  mother  he  would  ac- 
company her,  "at  which  she  was,  of  course,  much  sur- 
prised." Though  but  a  few  years  ago,  the  description 
of  their  journey  will  give  us  some  idea  of  the  advance 
we  have  made  in  locomotion  since  that  day.  They  started 
from  London  Bridge,  and  arrived  at  Ashford  in  two  hours 
and  a  half,  from  which  place  they  posted  to  Dover,  and 
arrived  at  six,  after  another  three  hours  and  a  half  on  the 


81  Buckle's  "  Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  Works,"  p.  xv.     My  reasons 
are  as  follows : 

1.  The  book  in  which  the  extant  Life  of  Charles  I.  is  written  is  dated 
"Boulogne,  July,  1849." 

2.  It  consists  of  a  series  of  disjointed  notes  from  Edward  VI.  down  to 
Anne,  in  which  there  is  no  indication  of  any  interpolation,  or  of  the  Life  of 
Charles  having  been  written  before  the  previous  articles. 

3.  It  refers  back  to  "  my  Life  of  James  I."     But  there  is  no  indication 
in  his  diary  of  1842-1848  of  this  work. 

4.  It  refers  to  Jacob's  "  Precious  Metals,"  which  he  only  read  eight  years 
later. 

6.  It  took  twenty -four  days  to  write ;  but  the  extant  article  consists  of 
but  three  small  folio  pages. 

6.  The  extant  article  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  a  narrative,  and  does 
not  mention  Buckingham's  death.     But  his  diary  has  the  entry,  "Con- 
tinued Charles  I.,  which  I  have  now  finished  down  to  the  death  of  Bucking- 
ham in  1628,  the  first  epoch." 

7.  The  fragment  on  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  is  quite  different  from  the 
notes  on  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  which  occur  in  this  volume.     Hence  we  may 
infer  that  the  Life  of  Charles  I.  was  of  the  same  kind. 


PRESENTED  AT  COURT.  33 

road.  They  were  there  told  that  the  steamer  would  leave 
next  morning  at  11.30,  but  were  woke  up  early  and  told  that 
the  steamer  having  arrived  earlier  than  was  expected  that 
morning,  it  would  start  again  at  nine  o'clock.  Tne  tide 
being  out,  they  had  to  put  off  in  small  boats,  and  only 
arrived  in  Boulogne  "after  a  stormy  and  miserable  pas- 
sage of  five  hours."  "With  characteristic  energy,  however, 
Buckle  found  a  Dutch  master  the  very  next  day,  though 
he  had  not  yet  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the  voyage ; 
but  a  day  or  two  after  he  fell  ill,  and  remained  so  for 
some  weeks.  Here  his  journal  unfortunately  breaks  off, 
but  we  learn  from  other  sources  that  he  returned  to  Lon- 
don soon  after  he  recovered,  as  he  had  made  up  his  mind 
to  travel  on  the  Continent,  and  knew  that  it  was  almost 
necessary,  if  he  wished  to  be  received  in  society,  that  he 
should  have  been  presented  at  court. 

On  17th  May,  1843,  he  was  presented  by  Lord  Eoden 
at  a  levee  held  by  Prince  Albert  at  St.  James's  Palace ; 
and  the  following  June  he  landed  at  Hamburg  with  one 
traveling  companion.  There  he  chanced  to  put  up  at 
the  same  hotel  as  Lord  Kimberley,  who  was  journeying 
through  Hamburg  at  the  time,  and  they  soon  became 
acquainted.  The  latter's  first  opinion  of  Buckle  was, 
that  he  was  terribly  conceited ;  but  he  soon  began  to  see 
that  there  was  much  justification  for  the  unbounded 
confidence  he  showed  in  his  own  powers.  His  old  Tory 
views  had  entirely  disappeared,  and  he  was  a  thorough 
radical,  which  he  long  afterward  remained,  even  going 
so  far  as  to  dislike  the  Whigs.  His  old  religious  views 
had  also  been  thoroughly  changed,  and  he  was  now  read- 
ing Strauss.  And,  finally,  the  plan  of  his  "History  of 


34:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

Civilization "  was  already  more  than  "  dimly  perceived," 
it  was  fully  sketched  out.  His  habit  was  to  sit  up  late  at 
night  reading ;  he  used  to  smoke  much,  and  was  a  great 
talker,  eager  to  discuss  anything  and  everything.  The 
two  parties  joined  and  traveled  on  together.  To  Berlin 
Buckle  had  brought  a  warm  letter  of  introduction  from 
Staunton,  whom  he  had  beaten  in  a  match  of  three  games, 
in  which  that  great  player  had  given  him  the  odds  of 
pawn  and  move ;  and  there  he  engaged  and  beat  Bessel, 
Scherpe,  Kossak,  Hausler,  Yon  Carisien,  and  Hanstein. 
The  greatest  players  of  Berlin,  Bledow  and  Heydebrant, 
only  just  succeeded  in  beating  him,  and  they  both  ac- 
knowledged his  extraordinary  powers.22  From  Berlin 
they  went  on  to  Magdeburg  and  Dresden,  at  which  place 
Lord  Kimberley  left  him  after  they  had  been  there  two 
months. 

Wherever  Buckle  traveled,  he  used  to  go  about  and 
mix  with  the  people  as  much  as  possible.  At  Dresden, 
after  watching  some  chess-players  at  a  cafe,  he  was  in- 
vited by  one  of  them  to  play.  The  man  played  carelessly 
at  first,  but  soon  paid  more  and  more  attention  to  the 
game.  At  last  he  was  beaten.  He  got  up,  and  made  a 
profound  bow.  "  Whoever  you  are,"  he  said,  "  you  should 
only  play  with  our  best  players."  Buckle  did,  and  soon 
won  quite :  a  reputation  there.  He  even  created  some 
jealousy,  and  heard  that  one  of  the  well-known  players 
had  gone  about  saying  that  Buckle  was  too  inferior  a 
player  for  him  to  engage  with.  Buckle  immediately  post- 
ed up  a  large  placard  challenging  that  gentleman  to  a 

22  See  the  "  Schachzeitung,"  Berlin,  1846,  pp.  87,  88 ;  1848,  pp.  305,  306 ; 
1862,  pp.  194,  195. 


TOUR  IN  GERMANY 


35 


game  for  five  hundred  dollars.  The  man  never  appeared 
in  public  again  while  Buckle  was  at  Dresden. 

He  traveled  thence  through  Austria  on  his  way  to 
Italy,  but  met  with  an  adventure  on  the  frontier.  The 
cautious  and  enlightened  customs  oificer  whose  business  it 
was  to  examine  his  luggage  paid  special  attention  to  his 
books,  among  which  they  came  upon  Copernicus's  "De 
Revolutionibus  Orbium  Coelestium."  This  dangerous  work 
was  promptly  confiscated,  in  spite  of  Buckle's  protests  and 
explanations.  They  did  not  care  where  the  revolution 
was ;  they  had  their  orders,  and  their  orders  were  to  con- 
fiscate all  books  of  a  revolutionary  tendency,  whether 
political  works  or  not.  He  much  enjoyed  telling  this 
story,  and  was  amply  repaid  by  it  for  the  loss  of  his  book. 

Of  his  second  stay  in  Italy  we  have  no  record  beyond 
an  anecdote  which  shows  how  his  name  was  already  well 
known  to  European  chess-players.  He  was  watching  a 
game  outside  a  cafe  at  Rome,  as  was  his  wont,  when  one 
of  the  players  on  the  conclusion  of  the  game  asked  him  to 
play.  This  man,  seeing  that  he  was  an  Englishman  and 
very  young,  proposed  a  scudo  as  the  stake.  Buckle  as- 
sented. "  Or  perhaps  a  couple  of  scudi  ? "  he  added. 
Buckle  agreed.  "  Well,  perhaps  it  would  make  a  better 
game  if  we  were  to  play  for  five  scudi  ? "  Upon  this 
Buckle  began  to  get  angry,  and  said,  "  I'll  play  you  for  a 
hundred  scudi  if -you  like."  The  man  was  quite  taken 
aback,  and  asked  him  his  name.  "  Buckle."  "  How  do 
you  spell  it  ?  "  He  was  told.  "  Ah,  Booclay  !  "  he  said, 
"then  I  won't  play  with  you."  We  know,  also,  that  he 
went  as  far  south  as  Naples ;  for  he  used  to  relate  that, 
when  he  went  inside  the  Blue  Grotto  at  Capri,  the  boat- 


36  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

men  refused  to  take  him  out  unless  lie  paid  them  more 
than  he  had  bargained  for.  He  handed  them  his  purse ; 
but,  when  he  got  back  to  Naples,  he  took  the  trouble  to 
prosecute  the  men,  and  got  them  punished — a  result  they 
had  hardly  counted  upon. 

During  the  whole  of  his  travels  he  diligently  studied 
the  language  and  literature  of  the  countries  in  which  he 
happened  to  be.  At  Munich,  where  he  stopped  longest 
on  his  return  from  Italy,  he  besides  studied  Hebrew,  with 
a  rabbi.  The  picture-gallery  was  one  of  his  great  resorts, 
and  here  he  used  to  take  his  luncheon  and  pass  hours 
gazing  at  the  pictures  and  trying  to  think  himself  into  the 
whole  idea  of  the  master.  "We  may  be  sure  that  the  gal- 
leries of  Italy  had  not  been  unvisited,  for  he  owned  that, 
despite  the  beauty  of  coloring  in  the  pictures,  he  preferred 
form  to  color,  and  this  opinion  he  never  altered  till  he 
traveled  through  Egypt  and  the  desert.  There,  watching 
the  glorious  tints  of  the  distant  mountains  of  Arabia, 
across  the  Gulf  of  Akaba,  the  intense  blue  of  the  water, 
the  yellow  sands,  and  perhaps  the  coral,  and  many  beauti- 
ful shelis  strewed  along  the  shore,  the  memories  of  the 
treasures  of  sculpture  in  Italy  were  vanquished,  and  he 
bowed  to  the  superior  power  of  color.  It  was  his  habit 
to  sit  up  late  at  night,  reading,  with  a  wet  towel  round  his 
head ;  and  on  one  of  these  occasions  he  was  frightened  for 
the  first  and  only  time  in  his  life.  It  was  about  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  he  had  been  reading  for  sev- 
eral hours  wholly  absorbed  in  his  book.  The  room  was 
dark  but  for  the  two  candles  which  burned  on  the  table 
before  him.  Suddenly  he  became  aware  of  something  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  table,  and,  looking  up  in  that 


ILLNESS— CHOICE  OF  A  PROFESSION".  37 

hesitating,  doubtful  way  one  does  when  absorbed  in  some- 
thing else,  he  saw  a  figure  all  robed  in  white  gazing  full 
in  his  face.  Before  he  had  time  to  think  he  shrieked 
aloud,  and  thus  woke  the  landlady,  whose  somnambulic 
figure  it  was  that  had  just  frightened  him. 

At  last  he  fell  ill  of  rheumatic  fever  and  his  mother 
came  out  to  nurse  him,  and  on  his  recovery  they  traveled 
home  together  by  way  of  Holland.  On  the  journey, 
Buckle,  who  was  always  eager  to  improve  himself  and  to 
talk,  entered  into  conversation  with  a  Dutch  fellow  trav- 
eler. The  man  at  first  explained  that  he  did  not  know 
English,  but  afterward  found  out  that  Buckle  was  speak- 
ing Dutch,  the  pronunciation  of  which  he  had  hardly  yet 
mastered,  although  he  knew  the  language  perfectly  well. 
He  kindly  explained  to  Buckle  where  his  faults  lay,  and 
they  then  got  on  better  together. 

The  question  of  a  profession  naturally  presented  itself 
to  Buckle  as  soon  as  he  arrived  home ;  the  first  considera- 
tion being  that  it  should  not  absorb  the  whole  of  his  time, 
but  should  give  him  sufficient  opportunity  to  prosecute  his 
studies  in  history.  This  was  not  an  easy  thing  to  find,  for 
he  well  knew  that,  once  thoroughly  engaged  in  a  profession, 
very  little  time  is  ever  left  for  studies  on  other  subjects. 
However,  he  at  last  decided  in  favor  of  the  bar,  for,  even 
in  the  full  swing  and  hurry  of  practice,  he  hoped  in  the 
long  vacation  to  find  time  for  further  study ;  and,  more- 
over, the  preparation  for  the  law  would  be  a  preparation 
for  his  other  work.  He  accordingly  consulted  his  cousin, 
Mr.  John  Buckle,  in  whose  ability  and  judgment  he  had 
throughout  his  life  the  greatest  confidence ;  but  he  strongly 
dissuaded  him  from  taking  this  step  on  the  score  of  his 


38  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

delicate  constitution ;  pointing  out  to  him  that,  with  such 
bad  health,  he  would  be  certain  to  break  down  just  when 
he  had  achieved  success  in  his  profession ;  and,  so  cogent 
did  his  arguments  seem  to  Buckle,  that  he  gave  up  all  idea 
of  it,  and  devoted  himself  entirely  to  his  reading.  He  also 
frequently  played  chess ;  but,  symptoms  of  overwork  show- 
ing themselves,  his  cousin  again  persuaded  him  to  give 
chess  up,  with  the  exception  of  occasional  games  for  relax- 
ation; and  again  Buckle  followed  his  advice,  though  it 
did  not  prevent  him  from  taking  this  form  of  relaxation 
almost  every  evening. 

His  second  sister  having  married  about  this  time,  his 
mother  took  a  house  in  London,  in  order  that  she  might 
live  with  her  son ;  though  London  never  agreed  with  her, 
and,  year  after  year,  she  was  confined  to  her  room  the 
greater  part  of  the  winter  with  bronchitis  and  asthma. 
The  house  was  No.  59  Oxford  Terrace;  not  very  large 
indeed,  but  having  a  room  built  out  at  the  back  about 
thirty  feet  square,  which  suited  Buckle  excellently  well 
for  a  library.  This  room  was  shut  off  from  the  rest  of  the 
house  by  a  small  passage-room  and  four  doors,  and  being 
lighted  only  by  one  window,  in  addition  to  the  skylight, 
gave  plenty  of  wall-space  for  bookcases.  Little  by  little 
every  available  space  was  covered ;  the  cases  had  a  piece 
added  on  all  round,  which  made  them  reach  from  floor  to 
ceiling,  even  the  space  over  the  door  was  covered,  and  the 
books  overflowed  until  there  was  not  a  room  in  the  house, 
from  the  bedrooms  to  the  butler's  pantry,  that  had  them 
not. 

He  calculated  that  22,000  volumes  had  been  in  his  li- 
brary ;  but,  as  he  used  to  sell  those  he  did  not  want,  there 


METHOD   OF  STUDY.  39 

were  only  about  11,000  in  his  library  when  he  died.  His 
table  was  fitted  up  with  shelves  all  round,  so  that  he  could 
have  all  the  books  he  wanted  around  him  when  he  was 
adding  references  to  his  "History."  Every  book,  more- 
over, was  numbered  and  catalogued,  so  that  not  only  could 
he  find  any  work  he  wanted  at  once,  but  he  could  send  his 
servant  for  it. 

For  fourteen  years  he  worked  here  unknown  to  the 
literary  world ;  and,  unfortunately,  we  have  no  record  of 
his  life  until  the  year  1850,  when  his  "  History  "  was  al- 
ready partly  written,  beyond  the  few  chess-games  which 
have  been  printed.  That  they  were  no  idle  years,  we  may 
infer  from  the  "  History "  itself ;  but,  still  more  from  the 
fact  that  he  read  nearly  all  the  books  he  had — that  is, 
about  three  volumes  daily — besides  writing  in  every  im- 
portant book  an  epitome  of  its  contents,  learning  more 
languages,  and  practicing  style.  He  always  read  pencil  in 
hand,  and,  when  he  had  finished  the  book,  wrote  out  in 
ink  from  his  pencil-notes  what  he  wished  to  remember. 
These,  again,  when  they  were  notes  on  a  book  that  he 
wished  to  "master,"  as  he  called  it,  he  used  to  read  fre- 
quently. Sometimes  he  read  and  reread  a  book  twice  or 
thrice,  though  his  memory  was  so  excellent  and  his  in- 
dustry in  note-taking  so  great  that  he  had  not  to  do  this 
very  often.  His  system  in  reading  was  not  to  follow  the 
book,  but  the  subject.  He  would,  for  instance,  in  read- 
ing the  history  of  England,  not  read  a  single  work  right 
through,  but  an  important  period  like  the  age  of  the  Re- 
naissance in  one  work,  say  Hallam,  then  in  Lingard,  then 
in  another,  then  go  on  to  read  the  dispatches  of  ambassa- 
dors, then  the  lives  of  the  great  men  of  that  age  in  various 


40  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

biographical  dictionaries,  until  having  viewed  the  subject 
from  every  standpoint,  and  turned  it  over  in  his  mind, 
he  was  "saturated,"  as  he  called  it,  with  that  period,  and 
would  go  on  to  the  next.  At  the  same  time  he  might 
have  another  subject  in  hand,  such  as  physiology,  which 
he  would  study  in  the  same  manner ;  and,  perhaps  a  couple 
or  so  of  languages. 

By  the  year  1850  the  total  number  of  languages  he 
knew  was  nineteen ;  namely — 

1.  English,  Y.  Dutch,  14.  Maorian, 

2.  French,  8.  Danish,  15.  Kussian, 

3.  German.  9.  "Walloon,  16.  Anglo-Saxon, 

4.  Italian,  10.  Flemish,  1Y.  Hebrew, 

5.  Spanish,  11.  Swedish,  18.  Greek, 

6.  Portuguese,  12.  Icelandic,  19.  Latin. 

13.  Frisiac, 

All  of  them  distinct  languages,  as  he  observed,  though 
some  of  them  are  similar  to  each  other.  The  first  seven 
he  knew  well,  and  could  converse  in  them  or  write  them 
with  ease.  With  the  rest  he  had  a  sufficient  acquaintance 
to  be  able  to  read  them  without  trouble ;  and,  indeed,  he 
never  cared  for  a  knowledge  of  any  language  excepting  as 
a  key  to  its  literature.  Their  real  value  was  this ;  for,  as 
to  talking  them,  one  might  travel  through  Europe  with 
only  a  knowledge  of  French.  "  The  vanity  of  people  is 
so  great  that  they  will  always  talk  to  you  in  your  own 
language,  if  they  have  but  a  smattering  of  it,"  he  said. 
Of  a  man,  who  was  pointed  out  to  him  at  Cairo  as  very 
learned,  because  he  knew  eight  languages,  Buckle  asked, 
"  Has  he  done  anything  ?  "  "  No."  "  Then  he  is  only  fit 


AMBITION.  41 

to  be  a  courier."  24  And  this  same  carelessness  of  knowl- 
edge of  languages,  excepting  as  a  means  of  knowledge, 
induced  him  to  read  foreign  works,  when  possible,  in  trans- 
lations ;  because  it  could  be  done  quicker,  and,  in  the  case 
of  German,  with  its  horrible  type,  saved  the  eyes  work, 
while  the  original  could  easily  be  referred  to  when  it  was 
necessary. 

But,  though  he  accumulated  such  vast  stores  of  knowl- 
edge during  these  few  years,  his  ambition  was  too  great 
to  allow  him  to  write  anything  for  immediate  publication. 
Ambition,  burning  ambition,  was  his  chief  characteristic ; 
and  no  idle  vanity  would  induce  him  to  write  anything  his 
maturer  age  might  condemn,  as  so  many  great  writers 
have  done  and  repented  in  vain.  "  I  made  up  my  mind 
when  I  was  a  boy,"  he  said,  "  that,  whatever  I  took  up,  I 
should  be  first  in.  I  would  rather  be  first  as  a  shoe-black, 
than  second  in  anything  else."  Dr.  Johnson  said :  "  A 
man  should  write  soon  ;  for,  if  he  waits  till  his  judgment 
is  matured,  his  inability,  through  want  of  practice,  to  ex- 
press his  conceptions,  will  make  the  disproportion  so  great 
between  what  he  sees  and  what  he  can  attain,  that  he 
will  probably  be  discouraged  from  writing  at  all." " 
But  Buckle  guarded  against  this  by  his  greater  industry. 
Though  naturally  gifted  with  a  clear  and  logical  style,  he 
would  not  trust  to  nature  on  so  important  a  point.  With- 
out ^  good  style  he  thought  no  book  of  any  value,  because 
no  book  written  in  a  bad  style  will  find  many  readers,  and 
until  new  truths  are  popularized  they  are  of  no  value.  He 
accordingly  studied  it  daily  for  four  hours  a  day  during  a 

94  "  Atlantic  Monthly  "  for  April,  1863,  pp.  494,  495. 
25  Boswell's  "  Life,"  Croker,  London,  1848,  p.  658. 


42  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

considerable  part  of  this  period ;  reading  a  few  pages  of 
Hallam,  or  Burke,  or  any  other  master,  and  then  he  would 
sit  down  to  write  the  same  thing  in  his  own  words.  He 
would  then  compare  the  two,  and  find  out  "  where  it  was 
that  I  wrote  worse  than  they."26  He  read  besides  the 
best  French  authors  for  the  same  purpose ;  and,  so  great 
was  his  industry  that,  although  the  regular  study  occupied 
him  only  a  few  years,  he  never  considered  that  he  had 
attained  perfection,  but  continually  studied  how  to  write 
better.  Even  after  the  publication  of  his  first  volume  we 
find  the  following  entries  in  his  diary :  "  Read  Burke  for 
the  style  "  ;  "  made  notes  on  style  from  Whately  and  H. 
Spencer  "  ;  "  began  to  read  Johnson's  English  dictionary 
to  enlarge  my  vocabulary " ;  and  "  read  Milton's  prose 
works  for  the  style — especially  for  the  vocabulary."  "  "  It 
was  a  valuable  lesson,"  says  Miss  Shirreff,  who  knew  him 
a  few  years  later,  "  to  hear  him  dissect  an  ill-constructed 
sentence,  and  point  out  how  the  meaning  could  have  been 
brought  out  with  full  clearness  by  such  and  such  changes." 
And  the  result  of  all  this  was,  that  he  formed  a  style  so 
perfectly  clear  and  flowing  that  the  reader  is  irresistibly 
carried  along  with  the  writer. 

He  composed  always  in  the  forenoon,  "  walking  about 
the  room,  sometimes  excitedly,  his  mind  engrossed  in  the 
subject,  until  he  had  composed  an  entire  paragraph,  when 
he  sat  down  and  wrote  it,  never  retouching,  nor  com- 
posing sentence  by  sentence,  which  he  considered  had  a 
tendency  to  give  an  abrupt,  jerky  effect  to  what  is  writ- 

26  "Atlantic  Monthly  "  for  April,  1863,  p.  494. 

27  "  Diary,"  1859,  March  16th  ;  September  9th  and  12th  ;  October  25th ; 
November  22d. 


COMPOSITIOK  43 

ten.  Traces  of  this,  lie  thought,  might  be  found  in  Ma- 
caulay's  style." 28  "When  dissatisfied  with  what  he  had 
done,  he  would  rather  rewrite  it  altogether  than  attempt 
to  alter  the  text  as  it  stood  ;  and  great  parts  of  his  history, 
more  especially  the  brilliant  perorations  to  the  various 
chapters,  were  written  more  than  once  before  they  took 
their  final  shape.  Hence  it  is  that  in  his  writings  there  is 
not  a  labored  passage,  and  none  of  that  mannerism  which, 
though  it  may  charm,  is  apt  to  tire  the  reader.  It  pro- 
duces the  exact  effect  required  and  no  more.  Here  and 
there  it  rises,  indeed,  to  fervid  eloquence,  seemingly  with- 
out effort,  by  contrast  with  its  ordinary  plain  and  unorna- 
mented  form,  like  a  first-rate  actor  who  reserves  his  voice 
until  required  for  the  passion  of  the  piece,  and  always 
rather  by  the  choice  of  apt  words  and  suitable  imagery, 
than  by  the  rhythm  and  cadence  of  long  and  foreign  words. 
Is  there  a  finer  passage  in  the  English  language  than  his 
peroration  to  the  chapter  on  Spain,  where  he  contrasts  her 
torpor  and  self-satisfaction  with  the  progress  and  compe- 
tition in  other  states  ?  We  are  led  up  in  a  few  words  to  a 
view  of  the  hurry  and  bustle,  the  dazzle  of  new  discov- 
eries, the  restlessness  and  noise  of  the  greater  part  of  Eu- 
rope, when  he  suddenly  breaks  off  just  at  the  summit  of 
our  excitement  to  point  at  sleeping  Spain.  Could  any- 
thing, again,  be  more  tender  than  his  passages  on  Burke, 
or  (to  turn  to  his  essay)  on  death  ?  Anything  more  sad 
than  his  apology  to  the  reader  at  the  end  of  Chapter  IY. 
of  his  second  volume  ?  Anything  more  severe  than  his 
denunciation  of  the  Scotch  clergy,  and  of  Mr.  Justice  Cole- 
ridge ?  It  was  this  that  made  his  attacks  so  galling,  and 

28  "  Atlantic  Monthly"  for  April,  1863,  p.  495. 


44  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

gave  him  the  power  to  punish.  What  he  said  of  Mr. 
Coleridge,  for  instance,  was  not  new ;  it  had  all  been  said 
before  in  Mr.  Holyoake's  pamphlet.29  But  the  one  having 
'  fulfilled  its  office  is  forgotten,  while  the  other  will  live  for 
ever,  a  monument  to  liberty  and  to  his  power  of  style. 

Hard  as  he  worked  during  all  these  years,  they  were 
the  happiest  of  his  life.  Then  he  could  indulge  the 
"hopes  that  belong  to  that  joyous  and  sanguine  period 
of  life,  when  alone  we  are  really  happy ;  when  the  emo- 
tions are  more  active  than  the  judgment;  when  expe- 
rience has  not  yet  hardened  our  nature ;  when  the  affec- 
tions are  not  yet  blighted  and  nipped  to  the  core;  and 
when,  the  bitterness  of  disappointment  not  having  yet  been 
felt,  difficulties  are  unheeded,  obstacles  are  unseen,  ambi- 
tion is  a  pleasure  instead  of  a  pang,  and,  the  blood  cours- 
ing swiftly  through  the  veins,  the  pulse  beats  high,  while 
the  heart  throbs  at  the  prospect  of  the  future." 30  His 
chief  enjoyment  in  life  was  reading,  although  he  did  not 
despise  sensual  enjoyments,  which  should  never  be  left 
out  altogether,  as  he  points  out  in  his  "  History," 31  but 
only  subordinated  to  the  general  weal,  and,  if  possible,  to 
intellectual  enjoyment  which  is  so  much  more  exquisite 
to  those  who  can  appreciate  it,  albeit  they  are  few  com- 
pared to  the  immense  number  of  those  who  can  live  hap- 
pily with  mere  sensual  enjoyments.  "There  are  two 


29  Though  Buckle  did  not  obtain  his  facts  from  that  pamphlet,  and  in- 
deed did  not  see  it  until  some  time  after  his  essay  was  published. 

30  "History  of    Civilization,"   etc.,  vol.   ii.,    p.   328.      London,    1861. 
Throughout  this  work  I  shall  quote  from  this  edition  of  the  second  vol- 
ume, as  the  only  one  its  author  revised ;  and  from  the  1858  edition  of  vol.  i. 
as  the  last  the  author  revised. 

31  Vol.  ii.,  p.  400. 


SMOKING.  45 

things,' '  he  said,  "for  which  I  never  grudge  money — 
books  and  cigars."  And  on  the  former  he  spent  about 
£300  a  year,  only  buying  them  for  the  subject,  since  he 
did  not  care  to  spend  money  on  mere  luxury  when  there 
were  so  many  calls  on  his  limited  income  necessitated  by 
his  delicate  state  of  health.  On  cigars  he  could  not  have 
spent  very  much ;  for  in  later  life  he  used  to  smoke  very 
little,  and  when  he  was  a  young  man  he  used  to  smoke 
pipes  as  well  as  cigars.  In  Germany  he  smoked  their 
national  pipe,  of  which  he  had  a  large  collection ;  and  in 
March,  1843,  he  notes  in  his  diary  that  he  went  to  a  shop 
in  Cromer  Street,  "  where  I  saw  the  process  of  pipe-mak- 
ing and  ordered  a  gross  of  clay  pipes.5'  He  afterward 
found,  however,  that  he  could  no  longer  smoke  pipes ;  and 
it  was  only  when  he  traveled  in  Egypt  and  tried  the  long 
chibouk  with  mild  latakieh,  that  he  again  took  to  them. 
"Those  who  delight  in  the  exquisite  flavor  of  tobacco," 
he  writes  in  his  "  Commonplace-Book," sa  "  and  above  all 
those  who  have  experienced  its  soothing  influence  over  an 
irritated  brain,  may  form  some  idea  of  the  enthusiasm 
with  which  it  was  welcomed  by  all  classes."  And  this 
"soothing  influence"  was  so  necessary  to  him  that  he 
never  would  accept  an  invitation  to  any  house  where  he 
might  not  smoke.  One  cigar  after  breakfast,  one  before 
dinner,  and  one  in  bed,  when  he  used  to  read  some  light 
book  to  compose  his  thoughts  and  prevent  an  exciting 
train  of  speculation,  was  his  usual  allowance ;  and  he  said 
that  he  could  neither  read,  write,  nor  talk,  if  forced  to  fore- 
go his  smoke ;  or,  Miss  Shirreff  adds,  if  he  was  forced  to 
overpass  by  much  his  usual  hour  for  indulging  in  it. 

32  "  Posthumous  Works,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  529,  Art.  64. 


46  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

But  though  he  never  denied  himself  a  book  that  he 
wanted,  or  a  good -cigar,  he  was  exceedingly  careful  (some 
charitable  people  say,  miserly)  with  his  money.  He  him- 
self points  out  in  his  notes  on  Queen  Elizabeth  the  differ- 
ence between  avariciousness  and  parsimony.  "  It  has  been 
a  common  charge  against  Elizabeth  that  she  was  avaricious. 
But  those  who  bring  that  charge  confound  parsimony  with 
avarice.  She  was  parsimonious,  and  in  this  she  only  did 
her  duty  in  saving  the  money  of  her  subjects,  a  duty  which 
it  would  be  well  if  sovereigns  of  the  present  day  would 
imitate,  instead  of  squandering  a  large  part  of  the  re- 
sources of  the  country  in  petty  amusements  not  fit  to 
occupy  the  leisure  of  a  girl  who  has  just  emerged  from 
the  nursery.  Camden  truly  says,  c  The  truth  is,  she  was 
provident  and  frugal  to  a  great  degree,  and  scarce  spent 
anything  but  in  the  necessary  support  of  her  royal  charac- 
ter, the  defense  of  her  kingdom,  or  the  relief  of  her  neigh- 
bors.' " 33  And  we  may  say  of  him :  the  truth  is,  he  was 
provident  and  frugal  to  a  great  degree,  and  scarce  spent 
anything  but  in  the  necessary  support  of  his  literary  char- 
acter, the  defense  of  his  health,  or  the  relief  of  his  neigh- 
bors. To  accuse  a  man  of  not  dealing  properly  with  his 
money,  is  not  only  an  impertinence,  because  it  is  no  busi- 
ness of  the  accuser  to  decide  how  another  man's  money 
should  be  spent ;  but  it  is  a  blunder,  since  the  accuser  can 
never  know  what  the  man's  expenditures  and  charities  are. 
Hard  indeed  must  be  the  heart  that,  seeing  the  miseries  in 
this  world,  will  not  attempt  to  relieve  them  ;  and,  though 
most  men  of  sense  know  that  charity  does  harm  except  in 
special  cases,  yet  few  men  of  ordinary  sensibility  can  do 

33  "  Posthumous  Works,"  vol.  iii.,  p.  619. 


CHARITY— ECONOMY.  47 

such  violence  to  their  feelings  as  thoroughly  to  act  up  to 
their  knowledge.  It  was  in  talking  on  this  subject  that  a 
friend  of  his  accidentally  heard  of  some  of  his  charities. 
When  he  was  accosted  by  a  beggar  in  the  streets,  he  said, 
"  I  ask  his  name  and  address ;  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  it 
was  a  false  one;  but  though  the  slums  and  narrow  streets 
I  had  to  visit  were  very  disagreeable,  yet  the  pleasure  of 
giving  bread  to  a  starving  family  in  the  tenth  case  repaid 
me  many  times  over  for  all  my  trouble."  These  charities 
took  nothing  from  his  time,  for  he  made  it  a  rule  to  walk 
seven  miles  in  the  course  of  the  day,  whatever  the  weather 
might  be,  and  therefore  had  plenty  of  opportunity  for  this 
and  for  other  business. 

His  income  was  not  large,  and  perhaps  never  exceeded 
£1,500  a  year.  He  was  therefore  obliged,  if  he  wished  to 
live  comfortably,  to  live  economically.  No  one  understood 
the  real  value  of  wealth  better  than  he ;  it  "  is  a  real  and 
substantial  thing,  which  ministers  to  our  pleasures,  in- 
creases our  comfort,  multiplies  our  resources,  and  not  un- 
frequently  alleviates  our  pains.  .  .  .  We  constantly  hear 
of  the  sinfulness  of  loving  money ;  although  it  is  certain 
that,  after  the  love  of  knowledge,  there  is  no  one  passion 
which  has  done  so  much  good  to  mankind  as  the  love  of 
money." :  He  was  very  accurate  in  his  accounts ;  and 
not  only  invested  his  own  money,  but  gave  his  friends 
good  and,  as  they  found,  valuable  advice  on  the  subject. 
To  one  friend,  for  instance,  who  has  kindly  sent  me  some 
reminiscences,  he  explained  the  necessity  for  persons  with 
fixed  incomes  to  be  saving.  For  the  value  of  money  is 
constantly  diminishing,  while  the  cost  of  living  as  con- 

34  "History  of  Civilization,"  etc.,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  311,  404. 


48  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

stantly  increases;  and  hence  the  necessary  expenses  in- 
crease as  the  power  to  meet  them  decreases.  Every  pru- 
dent person  should,  therefore,  lay  by  so  much  of  his 
income  as  will  suffice  to  maintain  its  purchasing  power. 
He  himself  paid  cash  for  everything  he  bought,  and  was 
careful  to  get  discount.  Once,  indeed,  when  he  had 
bought  a  new  carpet  from  a  man  who  had  promised  him 
discount  for  cash,  and  then  asked  for  the  whole  sum, 
Buckle  quietly  returned  the  unpaid  bill  to  his  pocket,  and 
told  him  to  call  for  payment  that  day  two  years.  At  one 
time  he  used  to  go  to  the  butcher  himself  to  select  his 
meat,  and  see  his  steaks  cut.  He  said  he  had  "  cultivated" 
an  attention  to  cookery,  and,  certainly,  was  a  first-rate 
judge  of  good  and  bad,  though  a  moderate  eater.  He 
only  ate  toast  on  Mondays,  because  on  that  day  the  bread 
was  more  than  one  day  old ;  but  his  servant  had  to  bring 
up  the  toasting-fork  into  the  dining-room  and  make  the 
toast  as  required.  No  woman,  he  said,  could  make  tea 
until  he  had  taught  her ;  the  great  thing  was  to  have  it 
very  hot ;  the  cups  and  even  the  spoons  should  be  warmed. 
The  tea  was  to  stand  a  little  longer  when  the  tea-caddy 
was  rather  full,  to  allow  time  for  the  leaves  to  unroll ;  but 
at  the  bottom  of  the  caddy  there  were  more  broken  leaves, 
and  hence  so  much  time  need  not  be  allowed.  "  It's  the 
only  time  my  servants  are  afraid  of  me,"  he  said,  "  when  I 
am  at  my  meals."  And  he  might  have  added,  "before 
my  meals,  when  they  are  unpunctual."  Indeed,  he  prided 
himself  on  the  cultivation  of  his  senses  as  well  as  his  in- 
tellect ;  and  on  his  practicality  as  well  as  his  speculative 
powers;  though  he  despised  those  "whose  knowledge  is 
almost  confined  to  what  passes  around  them,  and  who,  on 


PRACTICALITY.  49 

account  of  their  ignorance,  are  termed  practical  men."  36 
Yet  still  more  did  he  grieve  that  "  genius  "  should  always 
be  associated  in  the  minds  of  men  with  a  want  of  knowl- 
edge of  the  world.  "  As  yet,"  he  says,  in  his  "  Review " 
on  Mill's  "  Liberty  " — "  as  yet,  and  in  the  present  early  and 
unformed  state  of  society,  literary  men  are,  notwithstand- 
ing a  few  exceptions,  more  prone  to  improvidence  than 
the  members  of  any  other  profession;  and,  being  also 
more  deficient  in  practical  knowledge,  it  too  often  hap- 
pens that  they  are  regarded  as  clever  visionaries,  fit  to 
amuse  the  world,  but  unfit  to  guide  it."  He  looked  upon 
the  profession  of  letters  as  so  high,  that  it  was  disgraced 
by  this  too  common  failing  and  lost  the  power  that  was 
due  to  it,  and  good  for  the  world,  provided  that  failing 
was  amended.  Hence  his  admiration  for  Mill,  who  not 
only  was  a  great  thinker,  but  a  practical  man.  Much 
more  does  he  say  on  this  subject,  both  here  and  in  the 
"  History  of  Civilization,"  but  most  of  all  does  he  inveigh 
against  the  complacency  with  which  men  of  genius,  "  the 
salt  of  the  earth,"  run  into  debt  and  accept  pensions.  The 
very  existence  of  Hterary  pensions  is  an  insult  to  literature. 
"  In  a  merchant,  or  a  tradesman,  such  a  confession  of  reck- 
lessness [as  Comte's]  would  have  been  considered  disgrace- 
ful ;  and  why  are  men  of  genius  to  have  a  lower  code  than 
merchants  or  tradesmen?  ...  To  break  stones  on  the 
highway  is  far  more  honorable  than  to  receive  such  alms." 
And  he  practiced  what  he  preached.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  no  charge  could  be  more  untenable  than  avarice  in 
his  case,  when  he  might  have  made  several  thousand  a 
year  by  writing  essays  like  Macaulay  (he  had  actual  offers 

35  "History  of  Civilization,"  etc.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  810. 
4 


50  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

of  five  pounds  a  page  for  anything  he  chose  to  write),  or 
those  ephemeral  articles  which  are  written  by  men  whom 
necessity  or  desire  of  gain  compels  to  write  regardless  of 
their  reputation. 

At  a  time  when  he  taught  his  servant  to  bind  his  tat- 
tered books  for  him  in  brown  paper,  he  made  repeated 
offers  of  money  to  some  friends,  which,  though  never  ac- 
cepted, were  none  the  less  earnestly  reiterated.  "I  do 
most  earnestly  hope,"  he  says,  "  that  no  inducement  will 
make  your  husband  go  home  too  soon,  and  would  you  and 
he,  my  dear  friends,  pardon  me  if  I  remind  you  that  the 
offer  which  I  made  to  him  last  summer  still  remains  open, 
and  always  will  do  so  ?  Your  husband  must  be  amused 
and  have  all  his  home  comforts  in  traveling,  or  else  he 
will  not  reap  the  full  benefit  of  the  change.  I  know,  I 
feel,  that  he  will  get  quite  well  and  strong,  and  that  you 
will  be  as  happy  as  heretofore,  but  for  this  expense  which 
is  inevitable,  and  you  have  no  brothers  or  father  to  apply 
to.  Why,  then,  will  you  not  let  me  do  what  will  be  not  the 
least  inconvenience  to  me,  and  only  cost  me  the  signing  of 
the  paper?  Let  me  pay  £100  to  your  bankers,  and,  to 
show  that  it  is  a  mere  matter  of  business,  and  to  prevent 
your  husband  feeling  under  any  obligation  to  me,  I  will 
take  his  written  promise  to  repay  me  in  five  years  from 
this  date.  I  should  have  proposed  this  before,  but  I  felt 
a  delicacy  in  repeating  my  former  offer.  But  now  that 

Dr. has  given  this  new  and,  I  firmly  believe,  sound 

opinion,  I  can  not  avoid  suggesting  what  will  add  to  your 
comfort  and  not  diminish  mine.  Even  if  you  both  deter- 
mine again  to  refuse  it  for  the  moment,  will  you  clearly 
understand  that,  if  it  is  likely  to  be  useful,  you  are  to  write 


THOUGHTS  OK  EDUCATION.  51 

to  me,  and  you  will  give  me  a  pleasure  far  greater  than 
any  you  have  ever  yet  conferred  on  me  ? " 

One  of  the  chief  causes  of  his  careful  economy,  in 
later  life  at  all  events,  was  the  resolve  not  to  marry  before 
be  had  £3,000  a  year.  "  I  expect  so  much  in  my  wife," 
he  once  said,  "  that  I  can  not  look  for  money  too  " ;  and 
with  his  ideas  on  education  he  considered  he  would  not  be 
justified  in  marrying  on  less.  He  would  not  have  sent  his 
children  to  school  except  for  the  benefit  of  association  with 
their  fellows ;  he  would  have  taught  them  himself  by  word 
of  mouth.  In  the  words  of  Recha — 

"  Mein  Vater  liebt 

Die  kalte  Buchgelehrsamkeit,  die  sich 
Mit  todten  Zeichen  ins  Gehirn  mir  driickt, 
Zu  wenig." 

And  thought  as  Sittah : 

"So  hangt 

Sich  freilich  alles  besser  an.     So  lernt 
Mit  eins  die  ganze  Seele." 36 

As  was  exemplified  in  the  case  of  the  two  boys  whom  he 
took  with  him  to  the  East.     His  sons  should  learn  to  swim 
and  to  fence  ;  either  might  save  their  life.    But,  above  all,      » t,    , 
they  should  travel.     Traveling  was  the  greatest  educator, 
as  it  was  also  the  most  expensive. 

But,  although  he  was  right  in  this,  as  far  as  his  future 
sons  were  concerned,  it  was  as  regards  himself  the  great 
mistake  of  his  life.  Already,  at  the  early  age  of  seven- 
teen, he  had  fallen  in  love  with  a  cousin,  but  found  that 
she  was  unluckily  engaged  to  another  cousin.  The  for- 
tunate rival  was  challenged  to  a  personal  combat,  but, 

36  Lessing,  "  Nathan  der  Weise,"  Act  v.,  Sc.  vi. 


52  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

however  it  resulted,  the  lady's  destiny  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  altered  thereby.  About  this  time  he  fell  in  love 
with  another  cousin,  a  noble-hearted,  generous  girl,  above 
the  common  in  understanding,  with  a  very  large  fortune, 
and  with  a  liking  for  him.  It  is  truly  sad  to  think  that 
this  marriage,  BO  suitable  to  both  parties,  and  so  impor- 
tant for  him,  should  have  been  prevented  by  the  gross 
folly  and  superstition  of  the  world ;  a  superstition  that  he 
also  was  probably  imbued  with  at  the  time,  or  he  would 
never  have  submitted  to  it.  The  two  cousins  had  been 
thrown  much  together,  but  as  soon  as  their  respective 
mothers  noticed  their  growing  affection,  inspired  by  the 
false  and  immoral  idea  that  marriages  between  cousins 
are  harmful,  everything  was  done  to  discourage  it.  It  is 
not  my  business  here  to  point  out  what  a  world  of  mis- 
chief such  opposition,  as  every  other  opposition  to  the  due 
exercise  of  harmless  personal  liberty,  has  caused ;  that  I 
have  done  elsewhere ; 37  but  the  result  in  this  case  was  that 
his  mother's  death  left  him  alone,  unaccustomed  to  lone- 
liness, with  no  one  by  his  side  able  to  alleviate  so  terrible 
a  loss. 

His  diary  only  begins  again  with  the  21st  March, 
1850.88  His  book  was  begun  before  this  date,  for  we  have 
the  entry,  "  From  9.30  to  12  wrote  my  BOOK  " ;  and  he 

37  "  The  Marriage  of  Near  Kin,"  London,  1875. 

38  But  in  such  a  manner  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  believe  but  that 
some  of  it,  at  least,  has  been  lost.     It  opens  without  a  word  of  introduc- 
tion, and  just  as  subsequent  volumes  begin.     If  other  volumes  of  the  diary 
existed,  we  have  lost  with  them  all  account  of  the  course  of  his  reading, 
and  of  his  movements  at  a  period  concerning  which  there  is  no  supple- 
mentary information  by  letters,  the  only  correspondent  who  has  letters  in 
his  possession  written  during  this  period,  that  I  know  of,  having  refused  to 
allow  me  to  see  them. 


TOUR  IN  BKITTASTY.  53 

was  hard  at  work  studying  physiology  and  botany.  He 
bought  a  microscope,  and  went  to  Kew  with  Dr.  Lewis 
(whose  lectures  he  attended)  "  to  botanize  " ;  and  also  at- 
tended the  lectures  on  the  physiology  of  animals  and  vege- 
tables, by  Mr.  Brande,  at  the  Apothecaries'  Hall.  At  this 
time  his  mother  appears  already  to  have  been  a  real  invalid ; 
for,  during  a  tour  in  Brittany,  he  writes,  "  Walked  from 
2.45  to  3.45,  Jenny  and  I  together — so  that  she  can  now 
walk  famously."  They  had  gone  on  this  tour  alone  ;  and 
a  few  extracts  from  his  diary  will  show  what  chiefly  inter- 
ested him.  He  began,  as  he  always  did  when  about  to 
travel,  by  reading  up  on  the  subject  a  quantity  of  guide- 
books, tourists'  books,  and  historical  and  archaeological 
works.  They  started  from  Paris  to  Orleans,  where  he 
"  walked  about  that  curious  old  town,"  and  saw  the  muse- 
um, "  which  contains  a  very  curious  collection  of  anti- 
quities found  in  Orleans — among  these  things  two  very 
singular  forks."  Thence  they  went  to  Blois,  where  he 
saw  the  castle,  "  which  is  very  interesting."  Through 
Tours  to  Saumur,  whence  he  "  walked  about  one  and  a  half 
mile  and  saw  a  Druidical  dolmen.  It  is  curious  and  sin- 
gularly complete,  being  in  this  latter  respect  much  supe- 
rior to  Stonehenge,  though  not  so  large.  On  our  return 
we  went  to  see  the  museum  in  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  where 
there  are  some  flint  knives  (supposed  to  be  Druidical), 
found  near  the  dolmens.  They  reminded  me  of  the  de- 
scription given  by  Prescott  of  the  knives  with  which  the 
Mexicans  cut  up  their  victims."  To  Angers,  Nantes,  Au- 
ray,  whence  they  drove  to  Carnac,  "  where  we  saw  high 
mass,  and  walked  to  the  famous  Druidical  remains.  The 
stones  are  said  to  be  twelve  thousand,  but  none  exceed 


54:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

eighteen  feet  in  height,  and  the  coup-$wil  is  very  inferior 
to  that  of  Stonehenge."  The  next  day  they  went  "  in  a 
sailing  and  rowing  boat  down  the  river  Auray,  and  saw 
the  Druidical  remains  at  Lemariakes.  They  are  curious, 
and  one  of  them — a  menhir — before  it  was  broken,  was 
from  eighty  to  ninety  feet  in  height."  There  are  no  more 
remarks  till  he  came  to  St.  Malo,  where  he  went  to  Mount 
Michel,  "with  which  we  were  delighted."  At  Bayeux, 
"  Jenny  and  I  went  to  see  the  tapestry  which  is  at  the 
library,"  and  they  also  visited  the  cathedral ;  while  in  the 
evening  he  went  to  a  cafe,  and  played  chess  "  with  a  very 
bad  player." 

Short  and  dry  as  this  journal  is,  it  confirms,  as  far  as 
it  goes,  the  little  interest  he  took  in  scenery  as  compared 
with  man,  and,  as  an  illustration  of  the  way  in  which  he 
worked,  I  give  a  list  of  books  he  read  during  this  tour : 
Montesquieu,  "  Esprit  des  Lois,"  "  Lettres  Persanes,"  and 
"  Temple  de  Gnide  " ;  Corneille's  "  Plays  "  ;  Shakespeare ; 
Cousin, "  Litterature  "  and  "  Philosophic  Moderne  " ;  Cape- 
figue, "  La  Kef  orme  et  la  Ligue  " ;  Yoltaire's  "  Louis  XI V." ; 
Schiller,  "  Geschichte  des  Abfalls  der  vereinigten  Nieder- 
lande  von  der  spanischen  Regierung " ;  Todd's  "  Life  of 
Cranmer " ;  Blackstone's  "  Commentaries  on  the  English 
Law  " ;  Keeve's  "  History  of  English  Law  " ;  Tremenville, 
"Antiquites  de  la  Bretagne";  Caumont,  "Architecture 
Eeligieuse  au  Moyen  Age  " ;  Knight,  "  Architectural  Tour 
in  Normandy  " ;  Dawson  Turner,  "  Tour  in  Normandy  "  ; 
and  Murray's  "  Handbook."  This  was  what  he  thought 
necessary  for  a  month's  tour.  At  home,  of  course,  he  read 
more ;  his  hours  of  work  being  about  seven  to  eight  hours 
a  day,  and  to  gain  more  time  he  began  to  eat  only  bread 


GREAT  CHESS  TOURNAMENT.  55 

and  fruit  for  lunch,  "  to  keep  the  digestion  and  the  brains 
clear,"  and  often  ate  this  as  he  walked. 

For  a  man  who  valued  his  time  so  highly,  it  was  a  con- 
siderable sacrifice  to  consent  to  act  on  the  committee  of 
the  Great  Chess  Tournament  which  was  to  be  held  in 
conjunction  with  the  Exhibition  of  1851.  The  mem- 
bers, as  described  by  the  "  Illustrated  London  News," 39 
were: 

"  His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  representing 
the  chess-players  of  Oxfordshire  and  the  central  coun- 
ties. 

"  The  Right  Hon.  Lord  Cremorne,  representing  the 
chess-players  of  Ireland. 

"  The  Right  Hon.  Lord  A.  Hay,  representing  the  chess- 
players of  Scotland. 

"  The  Hon.  H.  T.  Liddell,  M.  P.,  representing  the 
chess-players  of  Northumberland  and  the  north  of  Eng- 
land. 

"  J.  M.  Gaskell,  Esq.,  M.  P.,  and  M.  Wy vill,  Esq.,  M.  P., 
representing  the  chess-players  of  Yorkshire  and  the  York- 
shire Chess  Association. 

"  C.  R.  M.  Talbot,  Esq.,  M.  P.,  representing  the  chess- 
players of  Wales. 

"  Captain  Kennedy,  M.  P.,  representing  the  chess- 
players of  Brighton  and  the  south  of  England. 

"  Sir  Charles  Marshall,  B.  Smith,  Esq.,  A.  Fonblanque, 
Esq.,  and  H.  G.  Catley,  Esq.,  representing  the  chess-players 
of  the  metropolis. 

"  H.  T.  Buckle,  Esq.,  the  winner  of  the  Chess  Tourna- 
ment at  the  Strand  Divan,  in  1849. 

39  Vol.  xviii.,  No.  471,  p.  163,  February  22,  1851. 


56  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  W.  Lewis,  Esq.,  the' eminent  chess-writer,  the  tutor 
of  McDonnell,  and  the  rival  of  Deschapelles. 

"H.  Staunton,  Esq.,  the  present  holder  of  the  chess 
scepter. 

"  The  three  last-named  may  be  fairly  taken  to  represent 
chess-players  generally,  without  reference  to  locality  or 
country,  having  won  more  than  European  fame." 

This  Chess  Tournament,  which  was  to  be  associated 
with  the  Exhibition,  and  help  to  inaugurate  an  era  of  uni- 
versal peace  and  goodwill,  began,  continued,  and  ended  in 
quarrel.  First,  the  London  Chess  Club  began  a  quarrel 
with  the  St.  George's  Chess  Club,  a  far  more  numerous 
and  powerful  body  and  the  founder  of  the  movement,  and 
the  chess  papers  were  full  of  bitter  personalities.  After 
the  Chess  Tournament,  disappointed  players  charged  each 
other  with  every  kind  of  treachery,  and  disputes  resounded 
from  all  parts  of  Europe.  The  Tournament  began  with 
eight  matches,  the  opponents  in  each  chosen  by  lot,  but 
Buckle,  though  he  paid  his  entrance  fee,  could  not  give 
the  necessary  time,  and  did  not  play.  This  was  perhaps 
fortunate,  since  in  these  first  eight  matches  each  pair  of 
players  played  a  rubber  of  only  three  games,  by  far  too 
little  to  exclude  the  element  of  chance,  and,  being  paired 
by  lot,  some  of  the  best  players  were  pitted  against  each 
other,  and  hence  superior  men  were  thrown  out  of  all 
further  competition,  while  inferior  and  quite  second-rate 
players  were  allowed  to  continue  in  the  Tournament.  The 
eight  winners  then  again  drew  lots  for  opponents,  but, 
wiser  by  experience,  each  pair  was  to  play  for  the  best  out 
of  seven  games,  and  after  these  the  winners  were  again 
paired,  until  the  results  were  declared  as  follows :  First, 


GKEAT  CHESS  TOURNAMENT.  57 

Anderssen  ;  second,  Wyvill ;  third,  Williams  ;  fourth, 
Staunton ;  fifth,  Szen ;  sixth,  Captain  Kennedy ;  seventh, 
Horwitz;  eighth,  Mucklow.  This  absurd  result,  partly 
due  to  the  causes  already  mentioned,  and  partly  to  the 
fact  that  Mr.  Staunton  was  suffering  from  illness  at  the 
time,  led  to  the  more  sensible  arrangement  of  a  series  of 
picked  matches.  "  The  arrival  of  the  celebrated  Russian 
amateur,  Major  Jaenisch,"  says  Mr.  Staunton,  "  and  the 
unexpected  appearance  in  the  lists  of  Mr.  Buckle,  one  of 
our  most  accomplished  players,  gave  increased  importance 
and  interest  to  these  contests.  The  first  match  on  the 
tapis  was  played  between  Mr.  Buckle  and  Mr.  Loewenthal. 
It  had  been  previously  agreed  by  the  committee  that  each 
of  these  combats  should  be  determined  by  one  of  the 
players  winning  seven  games,  but,  as  Mr.  Buckle's  engage- 
ments would  not  permit  him  to  undertake  so  long  a  match, 
an  exception  was  made  in  this  case,  and  victory  was  to  be 
his  who  first  scored  four  games." 40  The  first  game  was 
played  in  the  rooms  of  the  St.  George's  Chess  Club,  Caven- 
dish Square,  on  the  26th  July,  and  Loewenthal  beat  him. 
Buckle  won  the  second,  lost  the  third,  and,  at  the  fourth, 
after  playing  from  two  o'clock  to  eight,  Loewenthal  de- 
clared he  could  hold  out  no  longer,  and  they  adjourned. 
"  I  have  much  the  best  position,"  says  Buckle  in  his  diary, 
"  and  I  think  a  won  game."  The  next  day  he  did  win  it, 
and  again  won  the  following  game  after  a  five  hours'  con- 
test. Loewenthal  declined  playing  the  two  following  days, 
and  on  the  third,  Buckle,  after  waiting  some  time,  received 
a  message  that  his  adversary  had  "  a  bad  headache  and 
could  not  come."  But  the  next  day  they  met,  and  after  a 

40  "  Staunton's  Chess  Tournament,"  London,  1873,  p.  Ixxii.,  etc. 


58  BUCKLE'S  LIFE   AND  WRITINGS. 

game  of  nine  hours'  duration  Buckle  was  beaten.  They 
were  now  three  to  three,  and  the  next  must  decide  the 
victory,  which  was  gained  by  Buckle  in  a  six  hours'  game. 
During  these  days  he  worked  on  as  usual  up  to  about  one 
o'clock,  then  played  his  match,  and  afterward,  if  there  was 
time,  went  on  to  the  Divan.  The  only  exception  he  made 
was  after  the  nine  hours'  game,  when  he  writes,  "  In  bed 
at  11.30,  but  was  too  tired  to  read." 

He  afterward  played  a  series  of  fifteen  games  with  the 
winner  of  the  Chess  Tournament,  M.  Anderssen,  who  was 
then  at  the  height  of  his  strength,  and  won  by  a  majority 
of  one.41  And,  of  the  remaining  winners  in  the  Chess 
Tournament,  Buckle  had  played  in  1843  with  Wyvill, 
and  this  game,  the  only  one  recorded  between  these  play- 
ers, he  lost.43  Of  the  recorded  games  between  Buckle 
and  the  third  winner,  Williams,  Buckle  won  three  out  of 
six.43 

With  Staunton,  I  understand,  Buckle  had  a  match  by 
telegraph  between  London  and  Dover,  after  the  tourna- 
ment,44 and  beat  him ;  but  there  do  not  seem  to  be  any 
recorded  games  since  the  year  1842,  when  Buckle  took 
the  odds  of  pawn  and  move,  and  won  two  out  of  three 
games.45 

41  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  ninth  Edition,  Article  "  Chess,"  by  W.  N. 
P.     One  game  only,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  been  published ;  see  the  "  Chess 
Player,"  edited   by  Kling  and  Horwitz,  p.  112,    No.  14,  for  October  18, 
1851,  London. 

42  "  Chess  Player's  Chronicle,"  vol.  xii.,  p.  6.     London,  1851. 

43  Williams,  "Horae  Divanianje,"  pp.  116-119,  London,  1852;  and  the 
"  Chess  Player's  Chronicle,"  vol.  x.,  1.849,  pp.  113,  115. 

44  "  Chess  Player's  Magazine,"  p.  40,  February,  1864. 

45  The  "Chess  Player's  Chronicle,"  vol.  iv.,  pp.  195,  198,  201.     London, 
1843. 


EXTRACT  FROM   "LA  REGENCE."  59 

Eleven  games  are  recorded  with.  Captain  Kennedy  ;  of 
which.  Buckle  won  four,  lost  three,  and  drew  four.48 

"With  Horwitz  only  one  game  is  recorded,  which 
Buckle  won.47 

"With  Szen  and  Mucklow  he  never  played. 

Of  the  players  in  the  first  match  who  were  beaten, 
Buckle  had  played  Kieseritzki,  Loewenthal,  and  Bird; 
and,  on  the  whole,  proved  superior  to  each.48 

Two  years  before  "  La  Kegence  "  had  written :  "  II  y  a 
deja  quelques  annees  que  nous  avons  fait  la  connaissance 
de  M.  Buckle.  Tout  jeune  encore  alors,  cet  amateur  an- 
nongait  deja  par  la  severite  de  ces  combinaisons  une  puis- 
sance de  calcul  et  d'imagination  qui  devait  s'elever  bien- 
tot  aux  sommites  de  la  science,  et  c'est  peut-etre  aujour- 
d'hui  le  plus  redoutable  adversaire  que  Londres  puisse 
presenter  a  M.  Staunton.  Quelques  efforts  encore,  et 
cette  jeune  intelligence  pourra  revendiquer  sa  part  de  la 
couronne."  49  And  certainly  Buckle  was  in  1851  entitled 
to  the  championship  not  only  of  all  England  but  of  the 

46  "  Illustrated  London  News,"  vol.  vi.,  p.  144,  No.  148,  for  March  1, 
1845;  vol.  vii.,  p.  267.     No.  182,  for  October  25,  1845.     The  "Chess  Play- 
er's Chronicle,"  vol.  vi.,  pp.  331-336,  360-363;  vol.  vii.,  pp.  46,  47;  vol. 
viii.,  p.  353.     London,  1846  and  1847. 

47  The  "  Chess  Player's  Chronicle,"  vol.  ix.,  p.  46.     London,  1849. 

48  With  Kieseritzki  there  are  eleven  recorded  games,  of  which  Buckle 
won  five,  and  drew  two ;  but  in  the  first  he  took  the  odds  of  queen's  bishop. 
(See  "Chess  Player's  Chronicle,"  vol.  iv.,  1843,  p.  196;  vol.  ix.,  1849,  p. 
260;  "La  Regence,"  No.  1  for  January,  1849,  p.  28;  No.  2,  for  February, 
pp.  60-53  ;  No.  3,  for  March,  pp.  80-84 ;  No.  4,  for  April,  pp.  109-111 ;  No. 
8,  for  August,  1851,  pp.  241-246.)     With  Bird,  Buckle  won  one  out  of  four 
recorded  games,  and  drew  one ;  but  in  the  two  he  lost  gave  the  odds  of 
pawn  and  move.     See  the  "  Chess  Player's  Chronicle,"  vol.  xi.,  1850,  pp.  76, 
174 ;  and  the  "  Field,"  vol.  i.,  p.  61,  No.  4,  for  January  22,  1853 ;  and  p.  77, 
No.  5,  for  January  29th. 

49  "  La  Regence,"  pp.  44,  45,  No.  2,  for  February,  1849. 


60 


BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 


whole  world.  Such,  a  case  has  probably  never  occurred 
before  of  an  amateur  who  was  so  thoroughly  an  amateur 
as  only  to  play  for  his  amusement,  and  devote  no  time  to 
the  mere  study  of  the  game,  obtaining  so  great  a  victory. 
But  these  victories  took  more  Out  of  him,  as  he  said,  than 
he  was  willing  to  give  to  any  such  "  frivolous  triumph  " 
again ;  and,  much  as  he  loved  the  game,  he  never  played 
in  a  public  match  in  London  again,  although  he  visited 
the  Divan  at  least  twice  a  week. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Early  Scheme  of  the  "  History  "—Ill-health  of  Mrs.  Buckle— Tour  in  Ireland 
— The  Dublin  Chess  Club — Love  of  Society — Brilliancy  of  Conversation — 
Ready  Memory — Visit  to  the  Crystal  Palace — Mrs.  Buckle's  Conversation — 
Letters  to  Mrs.  Grey  and  Miss  Shirreff—  Serious  Illness  of  Mrs.  Buckle — 
Completion  of  Vol.  I.  of  the  "  History  "—Difficulties  of  Publication— Ill- 
ness— Increasing  Weakness  of  Mrs.  Buckle — The  Dedication — Publication 
of  the  "  History  "—Criticism. 

So  early  as  the  year  1852  Buckle  hoped  to  be  able  to 
publish  the  first  volume  of  his  "  History " ;  and  even 
talked  to  a  publisher  about  it.  But,  as  he  went  on,  his 
horizon  enlarged,  and  he  never  seemed  to  be  able  to  get 
any  nearer  completion.  And  yet  he  had  already  restricted 
himself  to  the  history  of  English,  civilization.  The  main 
lines  of  the  history  as  we  have  it  were  already  laid  down 
in  an  account  furnished  to  Lord  Kintore l  at  his  request  in 
February,  1853. 

"  You  wish  me  to  write  a  few  words  upon  the  object 
and  tendency  of  that  '  History  of  English  Civilization,'  on 
which  I  have  been  now  for  some  years  engaged.  It  is  very 
difficult  to  give  in  two  or  three  lines  a  clear  idea  of  so  ex- 
tensive a  subject.  But  I  may  say  generally  that  I  have 
been  long  convinced  that  the  progress  of  every  people  is 
regulated  by  principles — or,  as  they  are  called,  laws — as 

1  Of  which  Lord  Kintore  has  very  kindly  given  me  a  copy,  and  for  which 
I  here  take  the  opportunity  of  thanking  him. 


62  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

regular  and  as  certain  as  those  which  govern  the  physical 
1  world.  To  discover  those  laws  is  the  object  of  my  work. 
With  a  view  to  this,  I  propose  to  take  a  general  survey  of 
the  moral,  intellectual,  and  legislative  peculiarities  of  the 
great  countries  of  Europe ;  and  I  hope  to  point  out  the 
circumstances  under  which  those  peculiarities  have  arisen. 
This  will  lead  to  a  perception  of  certain  relations  between 
the  various  stages  through  which  each  people  have  pro- 
gressively passed.  Of  these  general  relations,  I  intend  to 
make  a  particular  application  ;  and,  by  a  careful  analysis 
of  the  history  of  England,  show  how  they  have  regulated 
our  civilization,  and  how  the  successive  and  apparently  the 
arbitrary  forms  of  our  opinions,  our  literature,  our  laws, 
and  our  manners,  have  naturally  grown  out  of  their  ante- 
cedents. 

"This  is  the  general  scheme  of  my  work;  and  its 
merits,  if  it  has  any,  will  depend  on  the  fidelity  with 
which  I  carry  that  scheme  into  execution,  and  on  the  suc- 
cess of  my  attempt  to  rescue  history  from  the  hands  of 
annalists,  chroniclers,  and  antiquaries." 

But  though  the  scheme  was  there,  and  we  can  detect 
no  alteration  in  it  as  published  in  the  "  History,"  there  was 
a  vast  increase  in  illustration  and  in  proof.  Again  and 
again  he  went  back  to  subjects  which  had  already  been 
carefully  studied,  as  the  course  of  his  work  brought  them 
forward  in  turn ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  he  supplemented 
and  added  to  his  old  authorities  a  host  of  new  ones.  On 
August  31,  1851,  for  instance,  there  is  the  entry  in  his 
diary  :  "  Read  the  remarks  on  inflammation  in  Carpenter's 
{'  Physiology,'  and  began  to  read  the  elaborate  discussions 
of  the  same  subject  in  "Williams's  '  Principles  of  Medi- 


ILL-HEALTH  OF  MRS.   BUCKLE.  63 

cine.'  This  is  to  prepare  me  for  fully  understanding  the 
views  put  forward  by  Hunter  and  Cullen."  Yet  he  had 
read  both  these  works  before.  And  again,  on  January 
27,  1852,  "  Finished  Combe's  '  Cerebellum,'  and  read  the 
arguments  against  phrenology  in  Carpenter's  '  Human 
Physiology.'  I  intend  now  to  begin  the  study  of  phre- 
nology to  determine  its  bearings  upon  the  philosophy  of 
history";  and,  on  February  11:  "Read  Combe's  ' Ele- 
ments of  Phrenology,'  which  I  compared  with  a  phreno- 
logical bust  I  bought  to-day." 2 

But  now  the  first  warning  frost  of  the  winter  of  his 
happiness  was  felt.  In  June,  1852,  his  mother  was  ill, 
and  he  himself  began  to  show  signs  of  overwork.  In 
November  she  got  worse,  and  even  his  sanguine  nature 
began  to  be  alarmed:  "December  11,  1852.  .  .  .  From 
10.20  to  2,  wrote  my  book,  but  could  do 'little,  being  de- 
tained by  a  long  conversation  with  F ,  and  thinking 

about  dearest  Jenny,  who,  I  fear,  is  very  poorly."  But 
by  January  she  was  out  of  danger  for  the  present ;  the 
doctors  "said  their  former  apprehensions  had  subsided, 
and  that  Jenny  would  now  certainly  get  well."  :  In  the 
summer  of  1853,  Mrs.  Buckle  was  moved  from  Brighton, 
where  she  had  been  so  ill,  to  Tunbridge  "Wells ;  whence  her 
son  writes,  as  follows  (Tunbridge  Wells,  May  18) :  "  Since 
I  have  been  here,  I  have  been  extremely  busy,  and  my 
book  goes  on  famously.  Indeed,  when  one  is  in  the  coun- 
try there  is  nothing  to  do  but  to  look  inward,  for  neither 

2  It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  while  Comte  continually  speaks  of  phre- 
nology as  an  incontestable  truth,  Buckle  patiently  studies  both  sides  of  the 
question,  and  finally  discards  its  claims;  for  it  is  not  mentioned  in  his 
"  History." 

3  January  23,  1853. 


64  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

the  brogue  of  the  peasants  nor  the  bleating  of  the  sheep 
is  sufficiently  suggestive  to  direct  the  mind  without.  I 
read  a  good  deal,  and,  what  is  more  to  the  purpose,  I  have 
thought  much  since  I  have  been  here.  However,  I  won't 
tell  you  of  this,  but  what  I  am  happy  to  say  is  that  my 
mother  is  certainly  better.  She  sends  her  kind  love  to 
you,  and  is  sorry  you  did  not  make  up  your  mind  to  come 
down  here.  I  shall  not  say  Zam  sorry,  because  you  might 
think  me  hypocritical,  and  I  have  a  moral  character  to 
keep  up — you  say  as  much  about  yourself  as  you  care  for 
yourself — and  that  is  nothing,  so  that  I  have  no  idea  if 
you  are  better,  but  suppose  you  are  in  this  glorious  weath- 
er. If  it  remains  as  fine,  I  shall  think  less  harshly  of 
nature  than  formerly.  I  am  indeed  glad  that  you  have 
been  so  industrious.  You  are  laying  up  permanent  pleas- 
ure— a  pleasure  that  often  survives  all  others — for,  if  any- 
thing is  immortal,  I  am  sure  it  is  knowledge." 

Though  Mrs.  Buckle  considered  her  health  so  critical 
that  she  made  her  will,  her  son  seemed  to  think  that  she 
had  almost  recovered,  and  made  a  tour  in  'Ireland.  He 
had  found  a  change  necessary  for  his  health,  and,  after 
hesitating  for  a  little  whether  he  should  go  to  Hanover  or 
to  Ireland,  he  decided  on  the  latter.  The  same  character- 
istics as  before  are  observable  in  the  remarks  he  makes  in 
his  diary  on  this  tour;  there  is  hardly  any  nlention  of 
scenery  excepting  that  he  says  he  went  in  a  boat  "  round 
the  magnificent  cove  and  harbor  "  of  Queenstown,  while 
he  continually  notices  the  doings  of  man :  "  Took  a  car  to 
the  round  tower  at  Clondalkin ;  very  perfect  and  curious ; 
the  first  round  tower  I  have  seen."  "  Walked  about  four 
miles  on  the  road  to  Bray,  and  saw  near  Kithney  Hill  the 


THE  DUBLIN  CHESS  CLUB.  65 

ruins  of  an  extremely  curious  church,  about  sixth  century," 
"  saw  the  remarkable  ruins  on  <  the  Rock  of  Cashel.'  "  At 
Dublin  he  saw  the  exhibition,  and  poked  about  in  the 
book-shops.  At  one  of  these  he  entered  into  conversation 
with  the  owner,  who  described  the  Dublin  Chess  Club,  of 
which  he  was  a  member,  as  consisting  of  wonderful  play- 
ers, "  far  superior  to  the  Saxon  "  ;  and  added  all  sorts  of 
praise,  making  out  that  their  best  players  could  beat 
Staunton.  Finally  he  took  Buckle  to  the  club,  and  he  sat 
down  with  the  best.  The  player  gave  him  the  odds  of 
pawn  and  move,  and  Buckle  saw  at  once  that  the  man  was 
no  match  for  him.  However,  he  would  not  beat  him  at 
onse,  but  played  with  him  as  a  cat  with  a  mouse,  doubling 
him  up  into  positions  from  which  he  could  not  move  with- 
out a  wof  ul  amount  of  disaster.  Buckle,  of  course,  won ; 
and  his  adversary,  thinking  that  he  must  by  some  accident 
have  opened  his  game  badly  and  blocked  himself  up,  tried 
again,  and  again  he  was  beaten  even  more  speedily  than  be- 
fore. Buckle  then  suggested  that  perhaps  they  had  better 
play  equal.  But  again  his  adversary  was  treated  in  the 
same  way.  Finally  he  gave  the  odds  of  rook  and  pawn, 
and  beat  him  thoroughly  again.  As  he  left,  the  secretary 
politely  asked  him  who  he  was.  They  had  never  been 
treated  so  before.  And  Buckle,  who  wished  to  take  the 
conceit  out  of  his  friend,  explained  that  he  was  only 
known  as  an  amateur  in  London. 

Although,  as  yet,  entirely  unknown  to  fame,  Buckle 
had  already  made  many  friends  through  his  great  conver- 
sational talent,  and  began  to  be  known  in  London  society. 
"Wherever  he  dined  the  guests  were  struck  with  his  re- 
markable powers,  and  were  anxious  to  make  his  acquain- 

5 


66  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

tance.  His  nature  was  anything  but  that  of  a  "  recluse." 
Though  in  later  life  he  preferred  his  own  impressions  on 
reading  a  play  to  any  interpretation  by  an  actor,  he  used  at 
one  time  to  go  to  see  Rachel,  Kean,  and  Macready.  He 
himself  acted  occasionally  in  charades  at  his  sister's  house, 
and  had  no  aversion  to  fancy  balls.  To  one  of  these,  or 
rather  to  a  masked  ball,  he  intended  going  in  the  character 
of  Mr.  Mantalini,  and  then  changing  to  that  of  Mrs.  Mala- 
prop ;  and,  like  himself,  read  up  for  them.  But  he  actu- 
ally appeared  in  "the  characters  first  of  Mantalini  in 
Nickleby,  and  afterward  of  a  canting  Methodist."  Mr. 
Hallam  had  introduced  him  also  to  the  Society  of  Anti- 
quaries, and  the  Eoyal  Literary  Society,  on  the  committee 
of  which  latter  he  served  in  1852 ;  andj  as  we  have  seen, 
he  was  well  known  to  chess-players,  and  belonged  to  the 
St.  George's  Club.  While  his  mother  was  well  enough, 
he  gave  dinners  during  the  season  of  from  eight  to  eigh- 
teen persons  two  or  three  times  a  week,  and  dined  out 
himself  frequently.  Indeed,  he  could  not  bear  dining 
alone,  and,  if  without  any  special  invitation,  he  would 
drop  in  upon  some  of  his  relations  or  more  intimate 
friends  to  spend  the  evening.  Of  his  talk,  Miss  Shirreff 
truly  observes  :  "  The  brilliancy  of  Mr.  Buckle's  conversa- 
tion was  too  well  known  to  need  mention ;  but  what  the 
world  did  not  know  was  how  entirely  it  was  the  same 
among  a  few  intimates  with  whom  he  felt  at  home  as  it 
was  at  a  large  party  where  success  meant  celebrity.  His 
talk  was  the  outpouring  of  a  full  and  earnest  mind,  it  had 
more  matter  than  wit,  more  of  book  knowledge  than  of 
personal  observation.  The  favorite  maxim  of  many  dinner- 
table  talkers,  '  Glissez,  mais  rta/ppuyez  pasj  was  certainly 


MR.  BUCKLE'S  CONVERSATION.  67 

not  his.  He  loved  to  go  to  the  bottom  of  a  subject,  unless 
he  found  that  his  opponent  and  himself  stood  on  ground 
so  different,  or  started  from  such  opposite  principles,  as  to 
make  ultimate  agreement  hopeless,  and  then  he  dropped  or 
turned  the  subject.  His  manner  of  doing  this  unfortu- 
nately gave  offense  at  times,  while  he  not  seldom  wearied 
others  by  keeping  up  the  ball,  and  letting  conversation 
merge  into  discussion.  He  was  simply  bent  on  getting  at 
the  truth,  and,  if  he  believed  himself  to  hold  it,  he  could 
with  difficulty  be  made  to  understand  that  others  might 
be  impatient  while  he  set  it  forth.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  fair  to  mention  that  if  too  fond  of  argument,  and  some- 
times too  prone  to  self-assertion,  his  temper  in  discussion 
was  perfect ;  he  was  a  most  candid  opponent  and  a  most 
admirable  listener."  His  memory  was  almost  faultless, 
and  always  ready  to  assist  and  illustrate  his  wonderful 
powers  of  explanation.  "Pages  of  our  great  prose  wri- 
ters," says  Miss  Shirreff,  "  were  impressed  on  his  memory. 
He  could  quote  passage  after  passage  with  the  same  ease 
as  others  quote  poetry ;  while  of  poetry  itself  he  was  wont 
to  say,  i  it  stamps  itself  on  the  brain.'  Truly  did  it  seem 
that,  without  effort  on  his  part,  all  that  was  grandest  in 
English  poetry  had  become,  so  to  speak,  a  part  of  his 
mind.  Shakespeare,  ever  first,  then  Massinger,  and  Beau- 
mont and*  Fletcher,  were  so  familiar  to  him  that  he  seemed 
ever  ready  to  recall  a  passage,  and  often  to  recite  it  with 
an  intense  delight  in  its  beauty  which  would  have  made 
it  felt  by  others  naturally  indifferent."  It  was  the  same 
in  all  that  was  best  in  French  literature :  in  Yoltaire, 
Corneille,  Racine,  Boileau,  and,  above  all,  Moliere.  Cap- 
tain Kennedy  recalls  an  instance  of  this  ready  memory  on 


68  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

an  occasion  when  they  were  in  company  together.  The 
conversation  turned  on  telling  points  in  the  drama,  and 
one  of  the  party  cited  that  scene  in  "  Horace  " 4  which  so 
struck  Boileau,  where  Horace  is  lamenting  the  disgrace 
which  he  supposes  has  been  brought  upon  him  by  the 
flight  of  his  son  in  the  combat  with  the  Curiaces.  "  Que 
vouliez-vous  qu'il  fit  contre  trois?"  asks  Julie;  and  the 
old  man  passionately  exclaims,  "  Qu'il  mourut !  "  Buckle 
agreed  that  it  was  very  fine,  and  immediately  recited  the 
whole  scene  from  its  commencement,  giving  the  dialogue 
with  much  spirit  and  effect. 

On  another  occasion,  he  happened  to  be  dining  at  the 
same  house  with  Prior,  and  chanced  to  remark  on  the  hap- 
piness of  Burke's  simile  of  the  claim  of  right  to  tax  Amer- 
ica to  a  claim  of  the  right  to  shear  a  wolf.8  Prior  then 
knew  nothing  of  Buckle,  and,  forgetting  his  own  quotation 
in  his  "  Life  of  Burke,"  or  confusing  it,  in  his  mind,  with 
what  he  says  just  before  of  Sheridan,  contradicted  him, 
and  said  the  simile  belonged  to  the  latter.  A  neighbor 
whispered  to  Buckle,  "  Take  care  what  you  say ;  that  is 
Prior,  who  wrote  Burke's  life."  Buckle  was  silent,  but 
only  for  a  minute ;  and  then  he  come  out  with  the  whole 
paragraph  of  that  magnificent  onslaught :  "  Are  we  yet  to 
be  told  of  the  rights  for  which  we  went  to  war  ?  Oh,  ex- 
cellent rights !  Oh,  valuable  rights  !  Valuable  you  should 
be,  for  we  have  paid  dear  at  parting  with  you !  Oh,  valu- 
able rights !  that  have  cost  Britain  thirteen  provinces,  four 
islands,  a  hundred  thousand  men,  and  more  than  seventy 
millions  of  money !  Oh,  wonderful  rights  !  that  have  lost 

4  Corneille,  "  Horace,"  act  iii.,  sc.  vi. 

6  "Westminster  Papers,"  vol.  vi.,  p.  24,  No.  62,  for  June,  1873. 


READY  MEMORY.  69 

to  Great  Britain  her  empire  on  the  ocean,  her  boasted, 
grand,  and  substantial  superiority,  which  made  the  world 
bend  before  her !  Oh,  inestimable  rights !  that  have  takgn 
from  ITS  our  rank  among  nations,  our  importance  abroad, 
and  our  happiness  at  home ;  that  have  taken  from  us  our 
trade,  our  manufactures,  and  our  commerce ;  that  have 
reduced  us  from  the  most  nourishing  empire  in  the  world 
to  be  one  of  the  most  compact,  unenviable  powers  on  the 
face  of  the  globe !  Oh,  wonderful  rights  !  that  are  likely 
to  take  from  us  all  that  yet  remains !  What  were  these 
rights  ?  Could  any  man  describe  them ;  could  any  man 
give  them  a  body  and  a  soul  answerable  to  all  these  mighty 
costs  ?  We  did  all  this  because  we  had  a  right  to  do  it ; 
that  was  exactly  the  fact.  c  And  all  this  we  dared  to  be- 
cause we  dared.'  We  had  a  right  to  tax  America,  says 
the  noble  lord ;  and,  as  we  had  a  right,  we  must  do  it. 
We  must  risk  everything,  we  will  forfeit  everything,  we 
will  think  of  no  consequences,  we  will  take  no  considera- 
tion into  our  view  but  our  right,  we  will  consult  no  ability, 
we  will  not  measure  our  right  with  our  power,  but  we  will 
have  our  right,  we  will  have  our  bond.  America,  give  us 
our  bond ;  next  your  heart — we  will  have  it :  the  pound 
of  flesh  is  ours,  and  we  will  have  it.  This  was  their  lan- 
guage. Oh,  miserable  and  infatuated  men !  miserable  and 
undone  country !  not  to  know  that  right  signified  nothing 
without  might ;  that  the  claim  without  the  power  of  en- 
forcing it  was  nugatory  and  idle  in  the  copyhold  of  rival 
states,  or  of  immense  bodies  !  Oh  !  says  a  silly  man,  full 
of  his  prerogative  of  dominion  over  a  few  beasts  of  the 
field,  there  is  excellent  wool  on  the  back  of  a  wolf,  and 
therefore  he  must  be  sheared.  What !  shear  a  wolf  ?  Yes. 


TO  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

But  will  lie  comply  ?  have  you  considered  the  trouble  ? 
how  will  you  get  this  wool  ?  Oh,  I  have  considered 
nothing,  and  I  will  consider  nothing  but  my  right : 
a  wolf  is  an  animal  that  has  wool;  all  animals  that 
have  wool  are  to  be  shorn,  and  therefore  I  will  shear  the 
wolf." 

After  this  Buckle  and  Prior  soon  became  acquainted  ; 
and  the  latter  dined  at  Buckle's  house  in  1855. 

Despite  his  wonderful  memory,  Buckle  would  never 
allow  himself  to  trust  to  it  entirely.  Every  book  he  read 
was  full  of  notes,  sometimes  a  regular  abstract  of  the  con- 
tents ;  and  every  quotation  in  his  work,  as  it  came  from 
the  press,  was  carefully  compared  with  the  original.  He 
used  to  carry  about  a  little  note-book  in  his  pocket,  in 
which  he  would  write  down  such  things  as  dates  and  long 
quotations  he  wished  to  remember,  and  this  he  would  con- 
sult from  time  to  time  during  his  walks.  For  poetry  this 
was  hardly  necessary,  but  a  page  or  two  of  prose  he  was 
obliged  to  read  over  three  or  four  times  before  he  knew  it 
by  heart.  Yast,  too,  as  was  the  extent  of  his  reading, 
everything  was  happily  digested  and  always  ready  when 
required,  so  that,  unlike  those  whose  "  much  reading  "  in- 
terferes with  and  obstructs  their  thoughts,  with  him,  the 
more  he  read  the  more  his  powers  increased.  Another 
gift,  which  greatly  enhanced  the  pleasure  of  hearing  his 
apt  quotations,  was  the  beautiful  modulation  and  flexibility 
of  his  voice,  which,  though  he  cared  nothing  for  music, 
was  extremely  musical.  Miss  Shirreff  describes  his  voice 
and  intonation  as  peculiar ;  "  his  delivery  was  impassioned 
as  if  another  soul  spoke  through  his  usually  calm  exterior ; 
and  it  seemed  to  me  of  many  a  familiar  passage  that  I 


DESCRIPTION  OF  BUCKLE.  ft 

never  had  known  its  full  power  and  beauty  till  I  heard  it 
from  his  lips." 

"With  Miss  Shirreff  and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Grey,  Buckle 
became  acquainted  in  1854.  "  A  valued  friend  of  ours," 
writes  the  former,  "had  known  Mr.  Buckle  and  his  moth- 
er for  some  time,  and  paid  us  the  compliment  of  thinking 
we  should  appreciate  him."  A  dinner  was  accordingly 
arranged,  and  that  Buckle  appreciated  the  introduction  is 
shown  by  the  entry  in  his  diary,  that  he  met  "  a  Mrs.  Grey 
and  her  sister,  two  remarkably  accomplished  women." 
"  It  was  a  house,"  says  Miss  Shirreff,  "  in  which  good  con- 
versation was  valued,  and  where,  consequently,  the  guests 
contributed  their  best.  Talk  flowed  on,  mostly  on  literary 
or  speculative  subjects,  and  Mr.  Buckle  was  brilliant  and 
original  beyond  even  what  we  had  been  led  to  expect. 
His  appearance  struck  us  as  remarkable,  though  he  had  no 
pretension  to  good  looks.  He  had  fine  eyes,  and  a  mas- 
sive, well-shaped  head ;  but  premature  baldness  made  the 
latter  rather  singular  than  attractive ;  and  beyond  a  look 
of  power,  in  the  upper  part  of  his  face  especially,  there 
was  nothing  to  admire.  He  was  tall,  but  his  figure  had  no 
elasticity ;  it  denoted  the  languor  of  the  mere  student,  one 
who  has  had  no  early  habit  of  bodily  exercise.  The  same 
fact  could  be  read  in  his  hand,  which  was  well-shaped,  but 
had  that  peculiar  stamp  that  marks  one  trained  to  wield  a 
pen  only.  ...  In  society  his  manner  was  very  simple  and 
quiet,  though  easily  roused  to  excitement  by  conversation ; 
and  we  found  later  that,  in  intimate  intercourse,  a  boyish 
playfulness  often  varied  his  habitually  earnest  conversation 
on  the  great  subjects  which  were  never  long  absent  from 
his  thoughts."  "  That  first  meeting  led  to  many  others, 


72  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

at  our  own  house  or  among  friends ;  quiet  evening  or  long 
afternoon  talks,  in  which  he  sometimes  was  led  to  forget 
the  rigid  method  of  his  hours.  It  was  less  easy  to  know 
his  mother,  for  she  was  even  then  an  invalid ;  but  he  was 
very  eager  to  bring  us  together,  and  succeeded  ere  very 
long  in  doing  so.  The  acquaintance  thus  begun  rapidly 
extended  to  all  our  familiar  circle,  grew  into  intimacy  with 
other  members  of  our  family,  and  ripened  into  one  of 
those  friendships  which  are  not  reckoned  by  years,  but  are 
felt  early  in  their  growth  to  be  beyond  the  power  of  time 
to  alter. 

"  In  the  course  of  that  spring  we  spent  several  weeks 
in  the  neighborhood  of  London,  and  Mr.  Buckle,  like  other 
friends,  was  invited  from  time  to  time  to  spend  a  day  with 
us.  ...  Pleasant  days  they  were ;  and,  like  a  boy  out  of 
school,  he  seemed  to  enjoy  strolling  in  the  garden,  ram- 
bling in  Richmond  Park,  roaming  also  in  conversation 
over  every  imaginable  subject,  and  crowding  into  the  few 
hours  of  his  visit  food  for  thought,  and  recollections  of 
mere  amusing  talk,  such  as  weeks  of  intercourse  with 
others  can  seldom  furnish." ( 

They  took  him  to  the  "  Crystal  Palace,  June  29th,  then 
lately  opened,  which  he  always  said  he  never  should  have 
seen  but  for  our  taking  him,  and  which  he  never  revisited. 
It  was  a  day  more  rich  in  many  ways  than  mortal  days  are 
often  allowed  to  be.  We  were  a  large  party,  all  intimates, 
and  all  ready  for  enjoyment,  and  for  the  kind  of  enjoy- 
ment which  the  Crystal  Palace  offered  for  the  first  time. 
It  was  a  lovely  summer's  day,  and  the  mere  drive  some 
miles  out  of  London — for  there  was  no  noisy,  whistling 

6  "  Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  Works,"  vol.  i.,  p.  xxii. 


VISIT  TO  THE   CRYSTAL  PALACE.  73 

railway  then — was  a  delight.  The  art  collections  were  not 
so  full,  the  flowers  not  in  such  rich  luxuriance  as  they 
have  been  since ;  but  there  was  a  charm  about  the  fresh 
beauty  of  the  place,  and  in  the  new  views  of  popular 
enjoyment  that  it  offered,  which  added  to  the  pleasure 
then  something  which  more  than  loss  of  novelty  has  im- 
paired. 

"  "We  were  not  altogether  disabused  at  that  time  of  the 
illusions  of  a  -new  era  of  peaceful  progress  which  the  first 
Exhibition  of  1851  had  seemed  to  inaugurate.  It  is  true 
that  we  were  even  then  in  the  first  stage  of  the  Crimean 
War;  but  many  still  believed  that  the  struggle  would 
quickly  end ;  the  glorious  days,  the  dark  months  of  suffer- 
ing yet  to  come,  were  little  anticipated.  .  .  .  None  shared 
the  illusions  of  the  period  more  fondly  than  Mr.  Buckle. 
He  thought  he  had  reached  philosophically,  and  could 
prove  as  necessary  corollaries  of  a  certain  condition  of 
knowledge  and  civilization,  the  conclusion  which  numbers 
held,  without  knowing  why;  and  it  was  this  train  of 
thought  which  made  the  opening  of '  The  People's  Palace ' 
interesting  to  him.  .  .  .  "We  had  wandered  through  the 
different  courts,  reproducing  in  a  manner  as  new  then  as 
it  was  striking,  the  memorials  of  the  past.  From  Nineveh 
to  Egypt,  Greece,  Imperial  Koine,  Moslem  Granada,  and 
Italy  through  her  days  of  glory  to  her  decline — all  had 
been  passed  in  review ;  and  he  then  turned,  as  he  loved  to 
do,  to  the  future,  with  its  bright  promise  of  reward  to 
man's  genius,  and  of  continued  triumph  over  the  blind 
powers  of  Nature ;  and  it  seemed  but  a  natural  transition 
from  his  own  speaking,  as  if  still  uttering  his  own 
thoughts,  when  he  took  up  Hamlet's  words :  '  "What  a 


74  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

piece  of  work  is  man !   How  noble  in  reason  !  how  infinite 
in  faculty!"' 

In  August,  1854,  Miss  Shirreff  paid  a  visit  to  Mrs. 
Buckle,  who  was  stopping  at  Highgate  for  the  summer. 
Here,  she  says :  "  I  made  real  acquaintance  with  Mrs. 
Buckle ;  and,  apart  from  her  being  the  mother  of  such  a 
son,  she  was  a  very  interesting  person  to  know.  It  is  curi- 
ous how  many  people  there  are  on  whom  their  own  lives 
seem  to  have  produced  no  impression ;  they  may  have  seen 
and  felt  much,  but  they  have  not  reflected  upon  their  ex- 
perience, and  they  remain  apparently  unconscious  of  the 
influences  that  have  been  at  work  around  and  upon  them. 
"With  Mrs.  Buckle  it  was  exactly  the  reverse.  The  events, 
the  persons,  the  books  that  had  affected  her  at  particular 
times  or  in  a  particular  manner,  whatever  influenced  her 
actions  or  opinions,  remained  vividly  impressed  on  her 
mind,  and  she  spoke  freely  of  her  own  experience,  and 
eagerly  of  all  that  bore  upon  her  son.  He  was  the  joy, 
even  more  than  the  pride  of  her  heart.  Having  saved 
him  from  the  early  peril  that  threatened  him,  and  saved 
him,  as  she  fondly  believed,  in  a  great  measure  by  her 
loving  care,  he  seemed  twice  her  own ;  and  that  he  was 
saved  for  great  things,  to  do  true  and  permanent  service 
to  mankind,  was  also  an  article  of  that  proud  mother's 
creed,  little  dreaming  how  short  a  time  he  was  to  be  al- 
lowed even  for  sowing  the  seeds  of  usefulness.  .  .  .  "When 
I  said  above  that  Mrs.  Buckle  spoke  freely  of  her  own  ex- 
perience, I  should  add  that  her  conversation  was  the  very 
reverse  of  gossip.  It  was  a  psychological,  rather  than  a 
biographical  experience  that  she  detailed.  I  rarely  re- 
member any  names  being  introduced,  and  never  unless  as- 


LETTER  TO  MRS.   GREY.  75 

sociated  with  good.  Of  all  her  husband's  family,  the  one 
she  spoke  of  most  often  was  his  nephew,  Mr.  John  Buckle, 
for  whom  she  had  great  respect  and  affection.  Henry 
Buckle  (her  son)  also  made  frequent  reference  to  his 
cousin's  opinions,  and  had  the  highest  esteem  for  his  abili- 
ties and  confidence  in  his  friendship." 

But  besides  the  personal  sympathy  there  was  a  literary 
bond  between  the  two  families.  Mrs.  Grey  and  Miss  Shir- 
reff  had  just  published  their  "  Thoughts  on  Self -Culture," 
and  any  literary  occupation  in  his  friends  always  aroused 
his  warmest  interest.  Of  this  work  he  remarks  in  his 
diary,  that  it  is  "  well  written  " — which  is  considerable 
praise  from  him,  as  he  seldom  takes  the  trouble  to  com- 
mend books  in  his  diary ;  and  he  at  once  offered  the  au- 
thors every  assistance  in  his  power  in  their  future  literary 
undertakings,  an  assistance  which  was  afterward  returned 
by  useful  criticism  on  his  own  work.  In  one  letter  he 
writes  :  uBut  seriously,  if  you  do  anything  while  you  are 
away,  you  will  want  books ;  and  if  you  will,  before  I  come, 
think  of  what  you  require,  should  they  be  in  my  library, 
you  can  take  them  with  you.  Who  can  work  without 
tools  ?  tell  me  that."  But  the  correspondence  will  show, 
better  than  anything  I  can  say,  his  great  interest  in  such 
matters  and  constant  kindness.  He  writes : 

59  OXFORD  TERKACE,  31st  August,  1854. 

* . 

"  DEAE  MRS.  GEEY  :  I  feel  that  it  was  very  ill-natured 
on  my  part  not  to  press  '  Comte  '  upon  you  last  night  when 
you  so  considerately  hesitated  as  to  borrowing  it.  To 
make  the  only  amends  in  my  power,  I  now  send  it  you, 
and  beg  that  you  will  keep  it  as  long  as  you  like.  For  I 


76  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

promise  you  that,  if  I  Lave  at  any  time  occasion  to  refer  to 
it,  I  will  ask  to  have  it  back.  So  that  you  need  have  no 
scruple  on  that  head.  The  only  thing  I  will  beg  of  you 
is,  that  when  not  reading  it  you  would  have  it  put  in  some 
cupboard,  as  on  several  grounds  I  value  it  very  much,  and 
I  never  leave  it  out  at  home. 

"  I  recommend  you  to  begin  by  reading  the  prelimi- 
nary view,  i  Exposition,'  in  vol.  i.,  then  pass  over  the 
physical  sciences  in  vols.  i.,  ii.,  iii.,  and  begin  at  vol.  iv., 
the  '  Physique  Sociale.'  Having  read  this  to  the  end  of 
vol.  vi.,  you  can  then,  if  you  like,  read  the  scientific  parts, 
which,  however,  are  of  somewhat  inferior  merit  to  the 
4  Sociologie.'  By  this  means  you  will  economize  time  and 

labor." 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  9th  May,  1854. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  After  our  conversation  yes- 
terday, touching  the  habits  of  acquisitiveness  which  litera- 
ture is  apt  to  encourage,  it  is,  I  think,  no  slight  proof  of 
the  simplicity  and  ingenuousness  of  my  mind  that  I  should 
lend  a  book  to  a  lover  of  books.  But  so  it  is.  And  I  can 
only  hope  that  the  subject  of  Middleton's  work 7  will  pro- 
tect the  work  itself,  and  that,  although  in  it  modern  mira- 
cles are  rejected,  you  may  be  induced  by  a  miraculous  in- 
terposition eventually  to  return  what  I  so  confidingly  offer. 

"  To  speak,  however,  seriously,  as  one  ought  to  do  on 
theological  matters,  it  has  occurred  to  me  that  sending  you 
the  'Letter'  would  save  you  some  little  trouble,  as  it  is 
not  likely  to  be  found  in  many  circulating  libraries,  and  it 

7  Conyers  Middleton,  D.  D.,  "  A  Free  Inquiry  into  the  Miraculous  Powers 
which  are  supposed  to  have  subsisted  in  the  Christian  Church  from  the 
earliest  Ages  through  several  successive  centuries.  To  which  is  added  the 
Author's  Letter  from  Rome." 


LETTERS.  77 

is  well  worth  being  acquainted  with  from  its  own  merit, 
as  well  as  from  the  great  effect  it  produced  at  its  first  ap- 
pearance. "Will  you  say  to  Mrs.  Grey,  with  my  kind  re- 
gards, that  I  hope  she  also  will  read  it ;  to  any  one  unac- 
quainted,  with  the  subject  it  will  open  a  new  field  of 
thought — and  to  beat  up  fresh  ground  is,  I  am  well  as- 
sured, no  slight  pleasure  both  to  Mrs.  Grey  and  yourself." 

11  SOUTH  GKOVE,  HIGHGATE,  18th  September,  1854. 

"  DEAB  MES.  GKEY  :  You  sent  me  the  first  three  vols. 
of  i  Comte,'  as  I  happen  to  remember,  for  I  put  them  away 
directly  they  came.  I  am  sorry  you  should  have  missed 
taking  them  with  you,'  as  in  the  country  one  particularly 
needs  some  intellectual  employment  to  prevent  the  mind 
from  falling  into  those  vacant  raptures  which  the  beauties 
of  nature  are  apt  to  suggest.  It  is  the  old  antagonism  be- 
tween the  internal  and  the  external — between  mind  and 
matter — between  science  and  art.  That  is  a  battle  which 
will  never  be  ended. 

"  We  intend  remaining  here  till  to-morrow  fortnight, 
or,  should  the  weather  be  very  fine,  a  week  longer.  I 
am  getting  on  rapidly  with  my  work,  but  still  I  have 
many  regrets  that  I  am  not  going  to  review  your  book — 
it  would  for  many  reasons  have  given  me  great  pleasure 
to  do  so.  But  I  think  you  will  acknowledge  that  I  could 
not  with  any  sense  of  what  was  due  to  myself  have  taken 
any  further  steps ;  and  I  am  sure  you  will  feel  that  my 
not  having  done  so  has  arisen  from  anything  but  a  di- 
minished interest  or  a  desire  to  withdraw  from  what  I 
had  offered.  I  say  thus  much  because  in  my  hasty  morn- 
ing visit  to  you  the  other  day  I  fear  that  I  hardly  ex- 


78  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

plained  sufficiently  what  my  views  really  were,  and  the 
causes  of  them. 

I  am  now  completing  my  examination  of  the  causes 
of  the  French  Revolution,  which  I  think  will  interest 
you  and  Miss  Shirreff  too,  if  she  could  hear  them.  Pray 
remember  me  most  kindly  to  her.  I  take  great  interest 
in  what  she  is  doing,  or  about  to  do,  on  female  education. 
The  grand  thing  would  be  to  make  women  more  ashamed 
of  ignorance;  but  that  is  perhaps  too  difficult  a  task  to 
undertake.  The  next  best  thing  to  seeing  the  ignominy 
of  ignorance  is  to  feel  the  beauty  of  knowledge — and 
there  I  think  something  might  be  done.  And  in  this 
point  of  view  I  might  caution  Miss  Shirreff  against  ad- 
vising too  muck  to  be  learned.  In  knowledge,  as  well  as 
in  morals,  immense  harm  has  been  done  by  pitching  the 
standard  too  high ;  the  consequence  of  which  has  been 
that  people,  feeling  they  can't  come  up  to  it,  cease  to  try, 
and,  finding  they  can't  get  to  the  top  of  the  tree,  they 
won't  even  climb  up  one  of  its  branches.  Would  it  not 
be  better  to  show  them  a  shrub,  and  make  them  believe  it 
was  a  full-grown  tree  ? " 

"49  SUSSEX  SQUARE,  BRIGHTON,  8th  October,  1854. 
"  DEAR  Miss  SHIEREFF  :  .  .  .  .  We  arrived  in  Brighton 
yesterday,  and  in  passing  through  town  I  called  on  Mrs. 

.     She  expects  to  see  Mr. in  about  a  month, 

and  has  promised  to  ask  him  to  review  i  Self-Culture.'  I 
made  the  proposal  that  he  should  be  asked,  casually  and 
in  the  general  course  of  conversation,  and  not  at  all  as  if  I 
had  called  for  that  purpose.  Cunning  me !  Why  was  I 
not  a  diplomatist  ?  That's  my  vocation  !  .  .  . 


LETTERS.  79 

"  And  now  in  regard  to  what  you  are  doing.  I  ob- 
jected to  your  recommending  too  many  subjects  of  study, 
not  so  much  because  they  weaken  the  mind,  but  rather 
because  they  terrify  it.  When  I  said  to  you  concentrate, 
that  was  my  counsel  for  your  own  intellect,  quite  irrespec- 
tive of  what  you  should  recommend  to  others.  Generally, 
I  think,  there  is  too  much  concentration.  But  my  fear  is 
lest  you  should  place  the  standard  of  excellence  too  high, 
and  thus  intimidate  those  you  wish  to  allure.  If  you 
were  writing  a  scientific  work  on  education,  then,  indeed, 
it  would  be  proper  to  raise  an  ideal ;  but,  as  your  object 
is  practical,  the  first  point  is,  not  what  ought  to  be,  but 
what  can  be.  I  cordially  agree  with  all  you  say  about  a 
wide  range  of  study  being  valuable  for  the  sympathies  as 
well  as  for  the  intellect,  but  remember  that  you  are  address- 
ing minds  most  of  which  either  do  not  perceive  this,  or,  at 
all  events,  perceive  it  very  faintly.  The  feeling  of  intel- 
lectual sympathy  is  by  no  means  a  very  early  step  even 
in  minds  of  some  power,  and  in  ordinary  cases  the  step  is 
never  taken  at  all.  I  doubt,  therefore,  whether  in  this 
line  of  acquirement  you  can  make  proselytes.  For  those 
who  are  capable  of  being  convinced  will  already  be  con- 
verted. Your  mission  is  with  the  heathen;  why,  then, 
preach  to  the  regenerate  and  baptize  the  elect?  If  you 
deal  with  average  minds  you  must  hold  out  average  in- 
ducements— such,  for  example,  as  the  value  of  knowledge, 
as  a  discipline  in  the  acquisition  of  it ;  or,  as  a  disgrace 
not  to  have  it.  These  are  substantial  grounds;  but  the 
high  ground  of  intellectual  sympathy  is  too  little  under- 
stood to  be  available  for  your  purpose.  In  nearly  all 
minds  the  idea  of  sympathy  is  preoccupied  by  moral  as- 


80  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

sociations  which  leave  no  room  for  the  admittance  of  in- 
tellectual ones.  For  fifty  persons  who  confess  the  utility 
of  knowledge  as  a  discipline,  you  will  perhaps  find  one 
who  values  it  as  a  source  of  sympathy.  Language  has 
much  to  do  with  this ;  the  meaning  of  sympathy  being  so 
fixed  and  settled  that  to  many  ears  the  mere  expression 
6  intellectual  sympathy '  would  seem  pedantic.  What, 
therefore,  I  mean  is  this :  that  if  you  recommend  a  large 
range  of  reading,  you  will  be  compelled  to  admit  that  the 
greater  part  of  it  must  be  superficial ;  and  you  can  only 
justify  this  by  the  argument  of  intellectual  sympathy — an 
argument  quite  decisive  to  those  who  understand  it,  but 
falling  pointless  on  the  immense  majority  of  those  for 
whom  you  write. 

""We  shall  remain  in  Sussex  Square  with  my  aunt 
about  three  weeks ;  and,  if  anything  occurs  to  you  in  any 
way  as  if  any  suggestion  of  mine  could  be  of  the  slightest 
use,  pray  write  to  me  here,  as  I  should  feel  indeed  happy 
could  I  aid  your  praiseworthy  undertaking." 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  8th  December,  1854. 
"  DEAR  Miss  SHIREEFF  :  ....  In  reference  to  what 
you  were  asking  me,  I  advise  you  to  dismiss  the  larger 
subject  from  your  mind  until  you  have  finished  the 
smaller  and  more  practical  one  on  which  you  are  engaged. 
I  would  suggest  that  it  should  be  entirely  practical,  and 
short,  so  as  to  be  published  at  a  low  price  ;  and  that,  above 
all,  it  should  be  unmistakably  clear,  so  that  the  meaning 
is  at  once  obvious.  In  a  work  of  that  sort,  parentheses 
and  inversions  are  to  be  carefully  avoided;  and  so  any 
long  sentence,  unless  broken  up  into  distinct  parts.  .  .  . 


LETTERS.  81 

The  frequent  use  of  the  relative  is  a  great  aid  to  lucidity. 
I  make  no  excuse  for  offering  these  somewhat  presump- 
tuous suggestions,  as  I  have  thought  a  good  deal  about 
language,  and,  above  all,  as  I  am  sure  you  will  look  at  the 
intention  of  the  advice  and  my  real  wish  to  do  what  I 
can  to  further  your  pursuits.  A  short  list  of  books  given 
under  the  different  chapters  would  be  useful,  and  I  hope 
when  I  return  to  town  early  in  January  to  hear  that  it  is 
wellnigh  finished.  I  need  hardly  say  how  much  will 
depend  upon  the  arrangement  of  the  topics,  i.  e.,  the  order 
in  which  they  succeed  each  other.  You  possibly  adopt 
what  is  a  good  plan,  of  drawing  up  first  a  skeleton  outline. 
...  I  send  ( Cousin,'  in  five  vols.,  but  do  not  postpone 
what  you  are  doing  to  read  it." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  15th  April,  1855. 

"  DEAK  Miss  SHTREEFF  :  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  can 

give  you  no  information  about  Dr. ,  never  having 

heard  his  name ;  nor  do  I  know  at  this  moment  whom  to 
apply  to  on  such  a  subject,  as  his  reputation  is  perhaps 
rather  practical  than  physiological,  and  I  believe  I  am  un- 
acquainted personally  with  any  oculist,  and  none  but  an 
oculist  would  be  a  competent  judge.  Of  course  a  man 
may  be  a  great  physiological  oculist,  and  yet  an  unsafe 
person  to  trust  as  an  operator ;  and  the  Germans  are,  on 
most  surgical  matters,  considered  very  inferior  manipula- 
tors to  the  French.  You  do  not  say  whom  this  informa- 
tion is  for;  I  trust  not  for  Mr. .  Alas!  alas!  when 

it  comes  to  a  chance  of  losing  one's  sight — and  yet  the 
blind  are  contented ;  why,  I  never  could  understand. 

"I  received  all  the  books  safely,  and  am  very  much 

6 


82  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

obliged  for  the  pains  you  have  taken  with  Querard 8.  .  .  . 
I  am  very  busy  and  tolerably  well,  though  I  think  some- 
times that  my  work  is  beginning  to  tell  upon  me." 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  12th  May,  1855. 
"  DEAR  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  What  I  probably  said  was, 
that  you  had  better  obtain  a  list  of  modern  educational 
works.  But  I  could  not  have  offered  to  show  you  one,  as 
I  really  know  nothing  of  the  subject  except  in  its  specula- 
tive bearings,  and  am  hardly  acquainted  with  even  the 
titles  of  such  works  as  you  ought  to  recommend  for  female 
education.  Perhaps  your  best  plan  would  be  either  to  call 
or  write  to  some  large  educational  publisher,  such  as  Riv- 
ingtons,  for  a  list  of  elementary  books  ?  In  which  case, 
if  you  could  procure  them  from  the  London  library  or 
elsewhere,  and  if  any  of  them  are  on  subjects  with  which 
you  are  not  familiar  and  I  chance  to  understand,  I  will 
gladly  read  them  and  give  you  the  best  opinion  I  can  form 
of  their  merit.  This,  or  anything  else  in  my  power,  I 
shall  be  truly  happy  to  do  ;  but  never  again  use  me  so  ill 
as  to  write  me  a  note  doubting  whether  or  no  I  grudge 
giving  up  time  in  order  to  help  you.  There  is  no  particu- 
lar reason  why  I  should  hurry  in  my  own  work,  and  there 
is  reason  why  I  should  assist  you,  if  I  can ;  the  reason  be- 
ing simply  the  selfish  one  of  doing  myself  a  pleasure. 
However,  as  Hamlet  says,  '  Something  too  much  of  this.' 
So,  I  will  only  add,  write  me  your  plans  and  views  in  de- 
tail, and  I  will  consider  of  them  for  a  day  or  two,  and 
give  you  at  all  events  an  honest  and  matured  opinion. 

"  Yours  truly,  HENRY  THOMAS  BUCKLE. 

8 "  La  France  Litte"raire,"  etc. 


LETTERS.  83 

" i  The  Aspects  of  Nature '  are  going  on  beautifully, 
notwithstanding  the  unkindness  of  some  people,  who 
promise  to  help  some  people,  and  then  don't  help  them  at 
all." 

"59  OXFOKD  TERKACE,  19th  May,  1855. 

"  DEAR,  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  I  have  carefully  read  the  pa- 
pers you  sent  me,  and  think  your  general  scheme  very 
good — indeed,  so  good  that  I  can  suggest  no  alteration.  I 
still  think  that  you  propose  more  than  the  great  majority 
of  minds  can  finally  retain  ;  but  this  is  only  my  own  opin- 
ion, and  it  may  well  be  that,  on  a  subject  on  which  you 
have  evidently  thought  so  much,  you  are  more  likely  to 
be  right  than  I.  So  on  this  I  will  say  no  more. 

"As  to  the  < Subjects  of  Lessons,'  the  following  ad- 
ditions occur  to  me,  which  I  can  recommend  from  personal 
knowledge : 

"  Lavallee,  '  Tlistoire  des  Francais.'  (One  of  the  best 
abridgments  ever  written.) 

"  Koch,  '  Tableau  des  Be  volutions.'  (An  admirable 
summary  of  general  history  of  Europe  in  three  volumes.) 

"  Keightley's  Histories  of  England  and  of  Greece,  but 
not  his  history  of  Rome,  because  there  is  a  still  better  small 
history  of  Eome  by  Schmitz,  the  friend  and  translator  of 
Niebuhr. 

"For  physical  knowledge,  Chambers's  ' Educational 
Course,'  and  Orr's  *  Circle  of  the  Sciences.'  (I  have  looked 
into  some  of  them,  and  those  I  have  seen  are  good.) 

"  Yillemain,  I  think,  is  a  one-sided  book  ;  and  I  would 
much  prefer  parts  of  Hallam's  '  Literature  of  Europe'; 
also  Craik's  'History  of  Literature  and  Learning  in  Eng- 
land.' These  two  would  probably  be  enough.  You  men- 


84:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

tion  '"Wharton.'  I  don't  know  if  you  mean  Warton's 
6  History  of  English  Poetry '  ?  If  so,  it  is  an  extremely 
prolix  book,  full  of  curious  but  irrelevant  dissertations,  and 
does  not  come  down  lower  than  the  sixteenth  century. 

"  I  entirely  agree  with  you  that  it  is  better  to  read 
translations  of  the  classics  than  modern  translations ; 9  and, 
above  all,  Plutarch,  Diogenes  Laertius,  Herodotus,  and 
Caesar. 

"  In  political  economy,  not  Marcet  or  Say,  but  Smith's 
'"Wealth  of  Nations'  must  be  read,  and  is  more  impor- 
tant than  the  history  of  foreign  countries.  This  one  work 
is  quite  enough,  if  made  a  text-book,  and  perhaps  exercises 
written  on  it,  as  it  should  be  mastered  thoroughly,  which 
I  believe  most  intelligent  girls  of  sixteen  are  quite  capable 
of  doing. 

"  Whately's  <  Logic ' — far  too  formal  and  repulsive — 
and  the  elements  of  geometry  would  answer  every  pur- 
pose as  a  mental  discipline.  To  Locke,  I  would  add  Eeid 
'  On  the  Mind ' ;  otherwise,  by  only  reading  one  side, 
you  only  make  a  partisan,  and  Eeid  is  really  able,  and  in 
a  small  compass  opens  views  untouched  by  Locke.  This 
would  be  enough  of  metaphysics.  Cousin  is  surely  too 
long.  Perhaps  you  might  recommend  Morell, £  History  of 
Speculative  Philosophy,'  which,  though  not  profound,  I 
find  to  be  accurate  as  far  as  it  goes.  Recommend  at  the 
same  time  the  corresponding  passages  in  Hallam's  '  Litera- 
ture,' and  pray  enforce  the  capital  principle  of  passing 
from  one  book  to  another  according  to  the  subject,  and  not 
necessarily  finishing  the  book  first. 

9  i.  e.  ?  Better  to  learn  modern  languages  than  ancient,  provided  both 
can  not  be  learned  ? 


LETTEES.  85 

"  Beckmann's  c  History  of  Inventions '  is  the  best  book 
of  its  kind. 

"  Maps  of  the  Society  for  Diffusion  of  Useful  Knowl- 
edge are  really  good. 

"  Geology  /  would  omit ;  but,  of  course,  you  will  use 
your  own  discretion.  Only  remember  that  geology,  with- 
out animal  physiology,  comparative  anatomy,  and  botany, 
has  no  scientific  existence  ;  and  every  good  work  of  geol- 
ogy presupposes  a  knowledge  of  those  subjects. 

"  I  think  astronomy  essential ;  and  fortunately  Her- 
schel's  book  is  good,  clear,  and  does  not  require  much 

mathematics  to  understand  it. 

o 

"  Bailey,  on  <  Formation  of  Opinions,'  is  important  in 
many  points  of  view. 

"I  would  give  a  short  specimen  of  the  best  way  of 
taking  notes,  and  of  keeping  a  commonplace  book. 

"  This  is  all  that  occurs  to  me  to  say.  If  there  is  any- 
thing else  I  can  do  or  suggest,  you  are  well  assured  how 
willingly  I  will  help  you. 

"  Your  papers  I  keep  here,  as,  before  I  see  you,  I  will 
read  them  over  again. 

"  Yours,  etc.,  etc. 

"  I  will  go  on  Monday  to  some  booksellers,  and  try  to 
procure  a  list  of  educational  books.  But,  in  writing  your 
book,  don't  measure  other  minds  by  your  own.  In  all 
practical  matters  it  is  dangerous  to  aim  high." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  1st  June,  1855. 
"DEAR  Miss  SHIBKEFF:   .  .  .  And  you,  I  hope,  are 
doing  something  touching  which  you  will  want  advice; 
or,  at  all  events,  suggestions.     I  am  very  busy,  very  sue- 


86  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

cessful,  and  therefore  feel  a  little  as  I  always  do  under 
such  circumstances,  which  are  rather  unfavorable  to  one's 
Christian  humility.  Hence  my  idea  of  being  able  to  help 
you.  But,  seriously,  do  not  hesitate  to  ask  for  whatever  I 
can  do." 

"59  OXFOED  TERRACE,  8th  June,  1855. 

"DEAR  Miss  SHERKEFF:  .  .  .  My  mother  is  certainly 
better ;  indeed,  improving  every  day,  I  almost  think,  since 
her  house  has  become  emptier.  She  would  like  very  much 
to  see  you,  but  /  feel  satisfied  that,  after  two  months  of 
seeing  people  every  day,  she  can  not  be  too  quiet ;  and 
therefore,  for  the  present,  it  would  be  better  to  defer  call- 
ing upon  her.  She  has  quite  lost  her  power  of  walking ; 
but  it  is  evident  that  nothing  is  really  the  matter  with 
her,  as  she  looks  well,  sleeps  well,  and  has  lost  all  her  for- 
midable symptoms.  .  .  . 

"I  will  try  and  pay  you  a  visit  on  Sunday  evening, 
but  don't  think  me  neglectful  if  I  omit  doing  so,  as  I  am 
working  very  hard,  and  sometimes  feel  so  tired  after  din- 
ner that  I  can  not  move." 

"HENDON,  29th  June,  1855. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIKEEFF  :  You  asked  me  to  write  about 
my  mother;  she  is  indeed  altered,  and  I  am  becoming 
very  uneasy.  Such  complete  weakness  as  hardly  to  be 
able  to  move  from  one  chair  to  another  without  holding 
something,  and  a  necessity  of  taking  nourishment  every 
two  or  three  hours.  Mr.  Rix  says  that,  without  active  and 
prolonged  stimulus,  she  may  lose  her  memory  altogether. 
She  is  to  see  no  one,  and  keep  very  quiet.  I  see  no  im- 
provement since  we  have  been  here — -and  you,  who  can 
form  some  idea,  and  only  some,  of  what  my  mother  is  to 


LETTERS—  MRS.  BUCKLE'S  ILLNESS.  87 

me,  may  imagine  how  unhappy  I  am.  It  is  hardly  worth 
while,  with  this  hanging  over  me,  to  say  anything  about 
myself;  but  I  am  not  at  all  well  —  sleeping  badly,  and 
having  painful,  nervous  feelings  at  night. 

"  My  mother  takes  no  medicine,  and  nothing  is  to  be 
done  but  to  wait  the  result.  Her  spirits  are  admirable, 
always  smiling,  and  never  does  a  complaint  of  any  kind 
come  from  her.  Indeed,  this  is  the  really  favorable  fea- 
ture ;  and,  as  I  am  positively  assured  there  is  no  organic 
disease,  everything  depends  on  the  power  of  rallying. 

"  This  is  a  sad  note,  but  it  is  the  only  sort  of  one  I  can 
write.  Still,  I  shall  be  glad,  and  indeed  anxious  to  hear 
about  you,  what  you  are  doing,  and  if  you  are  going 
abroad  ?  And  Mrs.  Grey,  too  :  it  will,  I  am  afraid,  be 
long  before  I  see  either  of  you.  If  I  can  give  you  any 
advice  about  your  book,  do  not  let  the  tone  of  this  note 
prevent  your  asking  me.  I  think,  the  more  miserable  one 
is,  the  more  willing  one  becomes  to  draw  nearer  to  others." 


,  5ih  July,  1855. 

Miss  SHIRKEFF:  My  mother  is  better.  How 
much  better,  or  whether  or  no  permanently  so,  I  can  not 
tell,  but  certainly  better.  On  Tuesday  [3d  inst.]  I  first 
saw  a  favorable  change  ;  and  to-day  she  has  walked  a  few 
yards  in  the  little  garden  without  help.  She  sends  her 
love,  and  says  she  is  very  sorry  that  your  absence  from 
England  will  prevent  her  from  seeing  you  —  for,  character- 
istically enough,  she  is  now  beginning  to  talk  about  seeing 
all  her  friends  again.  I  have  had  the  fullest  written  par- 
ticulars of  Mr.  Rix's  observations  on  her.  He  says  he  never 
saw  such  sudden  and  complete  prostration,  and  he  was 


88  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

very  apprehensive  of  some  failure  in  the  vital  powers. 
While  she  was  at  Tunbridge  "Wells  all  this  was  kept  from 
me,  and  she  would  not  let  my  sister  write  to  me  the  truth ; 
but  I  learn  that  her  weakness  was  so  great  that  the  few 
stairs  she  had  to  mount  she  literally  crawled  up,  holding, 
not  by  the  rails,  but  by  the  stairs  themselves.  But  her 
spirits  never  flagged,  and  she  wrote  to  me  so  cheerfully 
that  I  had  not  the  least  idea  of  her  real  state.  I  am  not 
naturally  sanguine — at  least,  not  in  the  practice  of  life — 
but  still  I  do  hope  now  that  the  worst  is  over,  and  I  feel 
that  every  day  which  passes  without  the  appearance  of 
mischief  increases  the  probability  that  no  mischief  has 
been  done. 

"  Tour  very  kind  and  warm-hearted  letter  was  indeed 
welcome  to  me,  and  made  me  feel  as  if  we  were  old  friends 
rather  than  recent  acquaintances ;  and  so  you  will,  I  hope, 
think,  if  at  any  time  I  can  be  of  use  to  you  in  your  special 
pursuits,  or  in  any  more  general  affairs.  At  present  no- 
thing much  occurs  to  me  in  regard  to  what  you  are  doing, 
as  I  do  not  know  how  far  you  have  progressed;  but  I 
would  particularly  recommend  you,  when  abroad,  to  in- 
form yourself  as  to  the  best  elementary  German  and  Italian 
works  on  the  history  of  literature.  If  you  can  mention 
any  really  good  short  and  clear ,  it  would  add  much  to  the 
value  of  your  book ;  and  on  this  I  can  give  you  no  in- 
formation. Lavallee,  f  Histoire  des  Francais,'  and  Baran- 
te,  '  Litterature  au  xviii6  Siecle,'  are  models  in  their  own 
line ;  and  I  would  ask  to  see  some  German  and  Italian 
works  as  nearly  as  possible  on  their  plan.  The  librarians 
abroad  I  have  always  found  very  courteous  and  well-in- 
formed ;  and  if  you  were  to  state  your  objects,  and  call 


LETTERS.  89 

with  Mr. at  one  or  two  good  public  libraries  (Geneva 

will  probably  be  in  your  route),  you  would,  I  am  sure,  be 
well  repaid.  Unless  any  book  on  education  is  specially 
recommended  to  you,  I  would  not  lose  time  in  reading  it. 
Far  better  it  will  be  to  consult  the  original  authorities  and 
mature  your  own  plan. 

"  I  do  not  know  what  provision  you  intend  making 
when  abroad  for  your  own  improvement.  Books  are  cum- 
bersome in  traveling,  and  one  or  two  good,  tough,  solid 
works  you  will  probably  think  enough  to  take.  I  should 
advise  Mill's  '  Political  Economy ' ;  if  you  have  read  it, 
never  mind,  read  it  again.  We  have  had  some  talk  on  the 
laws  of  the  distribution  of  wealth,  and  you  will,  perhaps, 
come  to  it  in  some  degree  with  a  fresh  mind.  Besides, 
we  must  remember  that  political  economy  is  the  only 
branch  of  political  knowledge  which  is  not  empirical — the 
only  one  raised  to  a  science.  This  alone  is  sufficient  reason 
for  carefully  studying  it;  and  Mill's  book  is  upon  the 
whole  the  best  since  Adam  Smith — though,  for  pure  po- 
litical economy ,  hardly  equal  to  Bicardo's.  But  Mill  has 
larger  social  views  than  Bicardo,  and  is  less  difficult.  In- 
deed, if  you  were  to  read  Bicardo  now,  you  would  not  do 
yourself  justice,  as  no  one  can  study  him  with  advantage 
without  preliminary  training  on  his  own  subject.  You 
spoke  to  me  of  Mill's  c  Logic.'  I  almost  doubt  if  it  would 
repay  you  the  great  labor  of  mastering,  and,  without  mas- 
tering it,  would  do  you  little  good.  Suppose,  for  your 
other  work,  you  were  to  take  with  you  Ly ell's  '  Principles 
of  Geology '  (the  last  edition  in  one  volume  royal  8vo), 
and  really  digest  it  and  make  an  abstract  of  it.  It  is  a 
great  book,  and  would  be  very  serviceable. 


90  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  And  now,  dear  Miss  Shirreff,  I  think  I  have  no  more 
to  say,  except  to  wish  yon  every  happiness  while  you  are 
away,  and  to  remind  you  that  an  imagination  inflamed  by 
the  beauties  of  Swiss  scenery  may  require  the  counterpoise 
of  a  severer  train  of  thought  than  is  necessary  in  a  me- 
tropolis." 

"HENDON,  nth  July,  1855. 

"  DEAK  Mus.  GEEY  :  By  all  means  keep  '  Hallam '  as 
long  as  you  like,  and  take  it  into  the  country  with  you ; 
and  I  sincerely  hope  that  the  change  of  air  and  quiet  will 
do  you  good.  I  am  truly  sorry  to  receive  so  indifferent 
an  account  of  your  health.  To  hear  such  things  is  enough 
to  prevent  one  from  being  an  optimist — how  much  more 
so  to  you  who  feel  them!  I  have  often  speculated  on 
what  you  and  Miss  Shirreff  could  accomplish  if  you  were 
made  capable  of  real  wear  and  tear ;  but  this  is  a  specula- 
tion I  could  never  bring  to  maturity,  because  of  the  strong 
suspicion  I  have  that  with  a  given  mind  there  must  and 
will  be  a  certain  physical  structure  of  which  we  may 
modify  the  effects,  but  never  change  the  nature.  Look  at 
Miss  Martin eau !  Give  her  delicacy  as  well  as  power,  and 
I  believe  that  she  never  could  have  gone  through  the  work 
she  has.  However,  one  can't  talk  about  this  in  a  note — the 
subject  is  too  big.  I  do  not  perceive  that  my  mother  is 
better  since  I  last  wrote,  but  she  holds  her  ground,  and,  if 
there  is  any  alteration,  it  is  an  improvement,  which  is  all 
that  can  be  expected,  as  her  treatment,  which  seems  judi- 
cious, is  intended  to  produce  slow  results.  She  is  unques- 
tionably stronger  than  when  she  first  came  here.  I  shall 
make  a  point  (if  all  goes  well  with  her)  of  coming  to  see 
you  when  you  return  to  town — so  you  will,  I  hope,  when 


LETTERS.  91 

your  plans  are  settled,  let  me  know  how  long  you  intend 
remaining  in  London  after  you  come  back  to  it  early  in 
August." 

"HENDON,  23d  Atigust,  1855. 

"  DEAK  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :  About  ten  days  ago  I  heard 
from  Mrs.  Grey  that  you  were  quite  well  and  enjoying 
yourself  greatly,  and  that  you  would  remain  at  Interlachen 
till  the  beginning  of  September.  I  therefore  address  to 
you  there,  as  this  agrees  with  the  plan  of  your  movements 
which  you  sent  me — a  rare  instance,  I  should  think,  of 
travelers  knowing  beforehand  what  they  are  going  to  do  ! 
First  of  all,  I  will  say  that  my  mother  is  decidedly  better, 
though  her  progress  is  slower  than  I  ever  remember  to 
have  seen  it,  and  she  is  unable  to  walk  a  quarter  of  the 
distance  she  could  four  months  since.  Last  week  she  had 
a  very  slight  attack  of  gout,  which  is  now  passing  off  fa- 
vorably, and  there  seems  reason  to  hope  that  she  will  be 
better  in  consequence.  She  sends  her  love  to  you,  and 
says  she  is  much  disappointed  at  not  having  seen  you  this 
summer.  In  her  feeling  of  regret  I  share  not  a  little,  as 
I  had  hoped  that  we  might  have  had  some  comfortable 
talk  about  what  you  are  doing,  and  which,  for  many 
reasons,  I  am  anxious  should  be  done  as  well  as  possible. 
A  really  good  book  on  education  will  be  invaluable,  and  to- 
ward writing  one  nothing  can  avail  so  much  as  my  favorite 
maxim  patient  thought,  turning  the  subject  round  in  one's 
mind,  and  looking  at  it  in  every  direction.  This  I  should 
rely  much  more  on  than  any  amount  of  reading.  Have 
you  taken  the  opportunity  of  making  inquiries  of  practical 
persons  as  to  the  working  of  education  in  Switzerland? 
Germany,  Switzerland,  and  Scotland  are  the  three  coun- 


92  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

tries  where  most  attention  has  been  paid  to  this  subject ; 
and  I  make  no  doubt  but  that  valuable  hints  might  be  col- 
lected. The  fact  that  your  book  must  be  in  some  measure 
speculative  makes  it  the  more  necessary  to  collect  testi- 
mony ;  for  all,  even  the  best  of  us,  are  full  of  prejudices, 
and,  by  comparing  the  standard  of  different  countries,  this 
evil  may  be  somewhat  remedied.  I  would  make  particular 
inquiries  as  to  the  amount  of  time  that  young  people  can 
give  to  study  with  advantage.  My  own  impression  is,  that 
the  time  given  at  school  is  generally  too  long  for  health, 
and  there  are  strong  physical  reasons  against  lessons 
before  breakfast  for  average  children.  In  England  the 
plan  is,  I  know,  very  general ;  how  is  it  in  Switzerland  ? 
This  is  one  of  the  things  well  worth  ascertaining.  Anoth- 
er thing  is,  how  do  they  cultivate  the  memory  ?  Whether 
by  association,  or  by  insisting  on  an  effort  of  the  will? 
You  will  see  how  important  this  question  is,  in  regard  to 
learning  dates,  teaching  poetry,  etc. ;  and  it  would  be  use- 
ful for  you  to  know  the  plan  ordinarily  adopted  at  Geneva 
or  other  chief  places  in  Switzerland.  Perhaps  you  have 
done  all'this,  and  half  laugh  at  my  supernumerary  advice ; 
but  I'll  take  my  chance,  and  when  I  do  write  I  like  to  say 
at  once  what  comes  uppermost. 

"We  leave  here  on  llth  September  for  Tun  bridge 
Wells,  thence  to  Brighton,  where  we  shall  remain  till  late 
in  November.  My  mother  then  goes  to  Boulogne,  and,  if 
she  continues  to  improve,  I  shall  not  accompany  her,  as  I 
wish,  if  possible,  to  have  my  first  volume  ready  for  the 
press  by  Christmas,  which  will  be  impossible  if  I  am  so 
long  away  from  London.  When  shall  you  be  in  town? 
As  my  movements  are  not  quite  certain,  please  address  to 


LETTERS.  93 

me  at  Oxford  Terrace.  The  last  few  weeks  I  have  been 
remarkably  well,  and  am  working  zealously,  and,  on  the 
whole,  satisfactorily;  but  the  arrangement  and  classifica- 
tion of  the  notes  is  laborious  beyond  anything  I  could  have 
conceived,  owing  chiefly  to  absence  from  my  library.  Still, 
I  do  hope  that  I  am  doing  something  which,  so  far  as  mere 
industry  is  concerned,  will  neither  disgrace  me  nor  disap- 
point my  friends. 

"  "When  I  recommended  Mill's  '  Political  Economy '  I 
meant  John  Mill,  and  not  his  '  Essays  on  Unsettled  Ques- 
tions in  Political  Economy '  (though  they  are  very  interest- 
ing), but  his  large  work  in  two  vols.  called  '  Treatise  on  Po- 
litical Economy,'  and  published  about  nine  years  ago,  and 
which  I  am  certain  would  interest  you  much.  Very  re- 
cently I  saw  a  copy  second-hand  of  his  *  Logic'  in  a  catalogue 
sent  to  me,  and  I  wrote  for  it  for  you,  but  was  too  late ;  it 
had  been  sold.  The  booksellers  tell  me  that  the  demand  for 
his  works  is  increasing ;  and,  considering  what  the  works 
are,  this,  if  true,  is  an  honorable  testimony  to  the  present 
age.  His  '  Logic '  has  gone  through  three  editions  in  a  few 
years,  and  a  fourth  is  now  preparing.  I  hope  you  like 
Ly ell's  '  Geology.'  It  is  a  grand  book,  though  I  think  his 
arguments  on  the  transmutation  of  species  very  unsatisfac- 
tory. Still,  that  is  only  a  small  part,  and  if  you  compare 
it,  for  instance,  with  our  best  books  on  botany,  mineralogy, 
chemistry,  or  zoology,  you  will  at  once  see  how  much  Lyell 
has  made  of  his  subject,  compared  to  what  other  men  have 
done  on  other  subjects." 

"  BRIGHTON,  9th  November,  1855. 

"DEAK  Miss  SHIREEFF:  I  heard  yesterday  that  you 
called  last  week  upon  my  sister  at  Boulogne,  and,  as  I  take 


94:  BUCKLE'S  'LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

for  granted  that  was  en  route  for  England,  I  write  a  few 
lines  to  you,  which,  indeed,  I  should  have  done  before  had 
I  felt  sure  about  your  movements.  Uncertainty  in  this 
respect  and  (to  say  the  truth)  hurry  and  fatigue  about  my 
work  kept  me  silent,  but  I  heard  of  you  from  Mrs.  Shirreff 
when  I  was  in  town. 

"  You  will,  I  know,  be  glad  to  hear  that  my  mother 
continues  to  improve.  Still,  she  is  far  weaker  that  when 
you  last  saw  her.  My  book  goes  on  miserably  slow,  and 
at  times  I  am  daunted  by  the  work  still  before  me.  The 
text  itself  is  ready  for  the  press,  but  the  notes !  oh,  the 
notes !  How  unhandsome  it  is  of  mankind  to  expect 
authors  to  give  proof  of  what  they  assert,  and  how  silly  it 
is  of  authors  to  give  it!  We  shall  remain  here,  I  think, 
till  the  middle  of  December.  Pray  remember  me  most 
kindly  to  Mrs.  Grey  when  you  see  her.  What  have  you 
been  doing  abroad?  Don't  take  my  short  notes  as  the 
measure  of  your  answer.  I  would  write  at  greater  length, 
but  am  really  overworked,  and  feel  as  if  I  could  think  of 
nothing  but  the  '  History  of  Civilization.'  When  vol.  i. 
is  out  I  will  become  more  punctual,  less  selfish,  and  more 
virtuous." 

1  'BRIGHTON,  21st November,  1855. 

"  DEAK  MES.  GREY  :  .  .  .  .  My  mother  is  really  better, 
but  still  very  weak  in  walking.  She  is,  however,  less 
nervous,  and  has  lost  those  alarming  sinking  feelings  which 
used  to  come  on  every  afternoon.  I  am  particularly  well, 
but,  miserable  wretch  that  I  am,  I  have  no  right  to  be 
well,  because  iny  book  creeps  on  like  a  snail,  and  I  ought 
to  be  affected  by  its  slowness.  Still  it  'is  moving.  But  I 
love  not  the  drudgery  needed  to  put  it  into  motion." 


"5$  OXFORD  TERRACE,  15th  January,  1856. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIRKEFF  :  I  really  hardly  know  how  to 
answer  your  question,  because  everything  depends  on  the 
ability,  and,  above  all,  on  the  industry  of  the  person  seek- 
ing the  information.  Schlosser's  '  History  of  the  Eigh- 
teenth Century,'  though  somewhat  tedious,  is,  on  the 
whole,  one  of  the  best  books  for  general  accuracy — I  mean 
for  the  accuracy  of  the  impression  it  leaves  on  the  mind 
after  reading  it.  The  last  edition  of  Koch,  '  Tableau  des 
Revolutions,'  contains  common  facts  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  well  put  together;  so  do  the  later  volumes  of 
Sismondi,  '  Histoire  des  Frangais,'  and,  above  all,  the  ad- 
mirable work  of  Flassan,  <  Histoire  de  la  Diplomatic 
Franchise.'  These,  with  Mahon's  <  History  of  England,' 
would  be  enough  to  recommend;  because,  in  the  notes, 
there  are  references  to  the  other  and  original  sources.  If 
a  more  special  list  is  required,  I  will  furnish  it,  as  I  can 
never  be  too  busy  to  help  a  friend  of  yours. 

"  If  you  have  the  means  of  reading  any  foreign  books 
on  the  philosophy  of  statistics — except  Quetelet,  which  I 
know — I  should  be  glad  to  have  additional  proof  for  my 
Chapter  I.  of  the  regularity  with  which,  under  the  same 
circumstances,  the  same  human  actions  repeat  themselves." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  19th  January,  1856. 
"  DEAR  MRS.  GREY  :  I  did  not  return  home  last  night 
till  very  late,  when  I  found  your  note,  and  was  not  a  little 
vexed  at  having  missed  your  dinner.  The  truth  is,  that 
being  somewhat  deranged,  if  not  altogether  mad,  at  find- 
ing I  had  time  to  spare,  I  went  out  in  the  afternoon  to 
enjoy  myself,  which  I  accomplished  by  playing  chess  for 


96  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

seven  hours,  and  difficult  games  too.  I  have  not  been  so 
luxurious  for  four  or  five  years,  and  feel  all  the  better  for 
it  to-day. 

"  I  am  a  Christian,  and  I  am  virtuous,  and  therefore 
would  have  come  to  you  yesterday  if  I  could  ;  but,  when 
I  went  out,  the  chance  had  not  occurred  to  me  of  your 
sending  so  prompt  and  so  kind  an  answer  to  my  note.  I 
have  had  a  long  interview  with  the  two  Parkers ;  they 
were  very  obliging  and  willing  to  meet  me  in  everything, 
and  handsomely.  It  is  impossible  to  tell  you  all  about  it 
in  a  note.  To-morrow  I  go  to  Whitehall  to  see  Mr.  Fors- 
ter.10  .  .  .  My  mother  is  a  little  better.  She  sends  her 
love,  or  at  least  would  if  she  knew  I  was  writing  to  you." 

"  59  OXFOKD  TERRACE,  9th  March,  1856. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIEREFF  :  I  do  not  think  you  need  allow 
any  weight  to  your  objection  against  [writing]  novels. 
You  have  not,  and,  I  am  sure,  will  not,  attempt  to  pro- 
scribe them.  What  harm,  then,  can  there  be  in  attempt- 
ing to  raise  their  character  by  setting  a  good  model  ?  Look 
at  Miss  Edgeworth — equally  successful  with  her  tales  and 
with  her  works  for  educational  purposes.  Every  branch 
of  literature  is  good  ;  improve  what  you  will,  but  prohibit 
nothing.  Two  very  different  and  yet  very  eminent  men 
— Warburton  and  Mackintosh — have  testified  to  the  bene- 
fit they  have  derived  from  novels ;  and,  although  I  now 
never  read  them,  I  can  give  evidence  to  their  having  aided 
my  intellectual  education. 

"  Mrs.  Austen  may,  no  doubt,  if  she  likes,  continue  to 

10  "  I  called  at  Whitehall  Place  by  appointment  on  Mr.  Forster  to  talk 
about  my  book.  He  says  I  must  not  consent  to  Parker  showing  the  MS.  to 
a  man  unknown  to  me ;  but  only  to  a  common  friend." — Diary. 


LETTERS.  97 

translate — she  has  never  proved  that  she  can  do  anything 
better ;  but  Miss  Martineau  does  not  translate  (except  with 
the  view,  as  in  her  '  Comte,'  of  diffusing  philosophical 
knowledge) ;  nor  does  Mrs.  Somerville ;  nor  does  any  wo- 
man who  reaches  far  and  aims  high,  unless  she  is  forced  to 
do  so.  The  more  I  think  of  it,  the  more  I  see  it  in  this 
light.  Remember  that  a  given  reputation  represents  a 
given  income,  and,  even  in  this  point  of  view,  a  name  is 
the  first  thing  to  be  desired.  If,  however,  on  mature  de- 
liberation, you  think  differently,  I  will  make  every  effort 
to  meet  your  wishes,  be  they  what  they  may. 

"I  think  that  the  construction  of  a  plot  is  not  the 
chief  point  in  a  good  novel  or  tale.  The  language,  and 
particularly  the  dramatic  power — telling  conversation  and 
the  like — go  for  more.  See,  for  instance,  Sir  W.  Scott, 
as  compared  with  James." 

"59  OXFOED  TEEEACE,  25th  May,  1856. 
"  DEAR  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :  I  am  deeply  sensible  of  the 
kindness  of  your  note,  but  I  really  am  not  working  too 
hard ;  and  if  I  were  to  go  away  for  a  few  days,  it  would 
do  me  no  good,  because  my  mind  would  be  in  my  work, 
and  there  would  be  no  recreation.  The  day  I  called  on 
you  I  was  slightly  depressed,  but  these  are  only  little  shad- 
ows which  pass  over  me  and  leave  me  as  before.  I  am 
very  careful — no  night  work — no  worry  of  any  kind — and 
now  never  exceeding  nine  hours  a  day,  and  very  often 
eight,  and  even  less.  Thank  you  for  all  your  kindness 
about  me ;  but  yet  a  little  while  and  I  shall  be  free  for 
some  time,  and  will  recruit,  though,  indeed,  I  have  no- 
thing to  recruit,  because  by  no  means  unwell." 
7 


98  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND   WRITINGS. 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  20th  June,  1856. 

"  DEAE  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :  It  will  give  me  real  pleasure 
if  I  can  be  of  any  use  in  regard  to  your  work ; "  but,  I 
need  hardly  say,  it  is  a  matter  requiring  a  great  deal  of 
deliberation.  I  will  make  a  point  of  seeing  Mrs.  Grey 
about  it ;  and,  as  your  return  to  town  is  doubtful,  I  wish 
that  in  the  mean  time  you  would  write  me  a  full  and  pre- 
cise account  of  how  you  stand — i.  e.,  how  many  copies  you 
printed,  how  many  remain  unsold,  whether  they  are  all  in 
quires  or  bound  up,  and  what  percentage  Hope  was  to  re- 
ceive for  distributing  them ;  also,  if  his  percentage  was  cal- 
culated on  the  published  price,  or  on  the  trade  price  ;  like- 
wise, what  allowance  he  made  to  the  trade  on  your  behalf. 

"  Whatever  his  terms  were,  you  must  be  prepared  to 
submit  to  others  more  unfavorable,  because  whoever  takes 
your  book  will  not  have  the  advantage  of  printing  it,  and 
therefore  must  get  more  profit  in  the  distribution.  I  should 
say  that  the  object  to  which  all  others  should  be  subordi- 
nate is  to  get  the  public  to  buy  the  remaining  copies,  how- 
ever small  your  profit  may  be.  I  wish  I  had  an  opportu- 
nity of  talking  it  over  with  you  ;  but  shall  not  leave  town 
till  the  10th  July,  so  there  is  time  yet. 

"  My  present  idea  is  to  test  the  effect  of  some  adver- 
tisements in  the  '  Times ' ;  but,  when  I  hear  from  you,  I 
shall  be  better  able  to  judge." 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  24th  June,  1856. 
"  DEAE  MES.  GEEY:  I  am  putting  en  train  a  little  plot 
of  my  own  about  the  '  Self -Culture.'     In  the  mean  time  I 
must  have  a  copy  of  the  last  edition,  for  a  purpose  which 

11  Second  edition  of  "  Thoughts  on  Self-Culture." 


LETTERS.  99 

I  intend  to  make  a  mystery  of  until  I  bring  it  to  bear.  So 
don't  be  inquisitive.  My  copy  I  have  lent ;  and,  as  Miss 
Shirreff  has  obtained  the  others  from  Hope,  I  can  only  get 
one  from  her  or  you — and,  as  the  matter  presses,  I  wish  to 
have  it  at  once :  so,  if  possible,  please  send  it  by  the  bearer. 
"  I  shall  add  no  more,  except  that  I  am  sure  you  will 
be  satisfied  with  what  I  am  doing." 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  30th  June,  1856. 

"  A  thousand  thanks,  dear  kind  Mrs.  Grey,  for  your 
most  welcome  letter,  which  I  have  this  moment  received. 
It  is  a  greater  pleasure  than  I  can  tell  you  to  see  how  those 
I  value  care  for  me,  for,  with  your  letter,  I  also  received 
one  from  Miss  Shirreff,  equally  considerate.  I  will  not  be 
so  affected  as  to  conceal  from  you  that  I  am  a  little 
alarmed,  and  at  times  very  depressed,  to  think  that  with 
such  large  hopes  I  have  such  little  powers.  My  head  is  at 
times  weak  and  slightly  confused ;  but  it  goes  off  (the 
feeling,  not  the  head — I  will  have  my  joke)  again  directly. 
They  tell  me  that  I  have  nothing  to  fear,  and  I  am  not 
apprehensive  except  of  my  future. 

"  To  break  down  in  the  midst  of  what,  according  to 
my  measure  of  greatness,  is  a  great  career — and  to  pass 
away,  and  make  no  sign — this,  I  own,  is  a  prospect  which 
I  now  for  the  first  time  see  is  possible ;  and  the  thought 
of  which  seems  to  chill  my  life  as  it  creeps  over  me.  Per- 
haps I  have  aspired  too  high ;  but  I  have  at  times  such  a 
sense  of  power,  such  a  feeling  of  reach  and  grasp,  and,  if 
I  may  so  say,  such  a  command  over  the  realm  of  thought, 
that  it  was  no  idle  vanity  to  believe  that  I  could  do  more 
than  I  shall  now  ever  be  able  to  effect.  I  must  contract 


100  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

the  field — maybe,  I  shall  then  survey  the  ground  the  bet- 
ter—and others  will  not  miss  what,  to  me,  will  be  an  irre- 
trievable loss,  since  I  forfeit  my  confidence  in  myself." 

But  at  least  he  had  something  to  show  for  it ;  for  his 
first  volume  was  now  potentially  finished.  The  first  in- 
dication that  he  was  again  nearly  ready  is  the  entry  on 
30th  January,  1855,  "  Began  to  arrange  the  books  which 
I  quote  in  notes  to  vol.  i.  of  Introduction " ;  and  on  22d 
July,  1855,  "Began  at  length  the  great  task  of  copying 
my  work  for  the  press " ;  and  again  in  the  same  year, 
"  Began  to  despair  of  ever  finishing  "  ;  for  even  while  he 
was  thus  copying  for  the  press  he  "  wrote  account  of  Bota- 

Kny  in  France  under  Louis  XIY.  as  completely  as  possible 
till  I  get £  History  of  Botany '  by  Pulteney.     Wrote  ac- 
S      count  of  bad  Emperors  favoring  Christianity  and  the  good 
V     Emperors  persecuting  it."     "  Began  and  finished  notes  of 
\  f\     '  Spain '  and  '  Inquisition '  to  prove  that  morals  have  not 
^V     diminished  persecution."    However,  on  the  1st  of  January, 
V     1856,  he  "began  at  length  to  copy  notes"  for  his  MS., 
^     and  entered  into  negotiations  with  Mr.  Parker  for  its  pub- 
^     lication.     "  I  have  had  a  long  interview,"  he  writes,  "with 
\j     the  two  Parkers.     They  were  very  obliging,  and  willing 
to  meet  me  in  everything,  and  handsomely." 

As  we  have  seen  by  his  letters,  Mr.  Forster  strongly 
advised  him  not  to  intrust  his  MS.  to  the  hands  of  any 
one  unknown  to  him;  and  he  therefore  wrote  to  Mr. 
Parker  as  follows : 

"59  OXFORD  TEKBACE,  19th  January,  1856. 
"  DEAK  SIR  :  As  Mr.  J.  Parker,  your  son,  will,  I  sup- 
pose, have  left  England  before  you  can  receive  this,  I 


LETTERS.  101 

write  to  you  in  reference  to  our  conversation  on  Thurs- 
day, which  I  have  now  had  time  to  think  over. 

"  I  quite  agree  in  your  opinion  that  the  season  is  too 
advanced  to  bring  out  my  work  at  present,  and  I  am 
willing  to  defer  going  to  press  till  July,  which,  I  believe, 
you  mentioned  as  about  the  month  when  it  would  be  ad- 
visable to  begin  to  print  it. 

"  In  ten  days  or  a  fortnight  I  shall  have  the  MS.  in 
such  a  state  that  the  most  important  parts  of  it  can  be 
examined  by  any  one  you  select  to  act  on  your  behalf. 
But,  as  I  mentioned  to  you,  I  feel  nervous  about  intrust- 
ing it  in  the  hands  of  a  person  of  whom  I  have  no  knowl- 
edge, and  that,  too,  for  an  indefinite  period ;  and,  having 
no  copy,  the  risk  I  should  run  would  make  me  very  un- 
comfortable. I  fully  admit  the  propriety  of  your  having 
an  opinion  on  it  in  regard  to  the  style  of  composition,  and, 
therefore,  probable  popularity ;  but  this  might  be  obtained 
from  some  one  with  whom  we  are  both  acquainted,  and 
to  whom  I  could  send  the  MS.  direct  at  the  time  he  would 
appoint,  and  when  I  knew  he  would  be  at  leisure  to  read 
it  at  once,  and  return  it  without  delay.  The  two  most 
competent  men  I  know  are  Mr.  Forster  and  Mr.  Baden 
Powell,  with  both  of  whom  you  are  probably  personally 
acquainted,  and  as  to  whose  ability  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion. "Would  it  suit  you  to  ask  either  of  these  gentlemen 
to  act  as  referees  ?  In  them  I  should  have  complete  con- 
fidence ;  and,  if  you  consulted  either  of  them,  it  would  be 
understood  that,  being  appointed  by  you,  he  would  act  on 
your  side  rather  than  on  mine.  After  all,  the  main  ques- 
tion is,  have  I  written  the  book  clearly  and  popularly? 
for,  as  I  have  been  engaged  incessantly  on  it  for  fourteen 


102  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

years,  I  shall  not  be  presumptuous  in  saying  that  the 
amount  of  reading  it  will  display  will  be  such  as  to  do  no 
discredit  to  its  publishers. 

"  I  trust  that  you  will  not  consider  my  proposition  un- 
reasonable ;  but?  I  really  feel  an  insuperable  repugnance  to 
intrusting  to  a  person,  of  whose  very  name  I  am  ignorant, 
a  MS.  which  has  cost  me  many  years  of  continued  thought. 

"  Believe  me,  etc. 

"  I  may  mention  that,  though  I  have  the  pleasure  of 
knowing  Mr.  Forster  and  Mr.  Powell,  neither  of  them 
has  heard  or  seen  a  line  of  my  work,  so  that  they  would 
come  to  it  unprejudiced.  Mr.  Forster,  as  editor  of  the 
'  Examiner,'  has,  of  course,  peculiar  facilities  for  judging 
if  a  book  is  likely  to  be  popular." 

a59  OXFOKD  TERRACE,  22d  February,  1856. 

"  DEAR  SIR  :  I  am  very  sensible  of  your  handsome  pro- 
posal, of  declining  having  a  preliminary  examination  made 
of  my  MS.  But  I  think  myself  bound  to  meet  you  in  a 
similar  spirit,  and  I  would  therefore  suggest  another  plan 
— as  it  is  my  desire  if  possible  to  establish  a  permanent 
connection  with  your  house  in  a  manner  satisfactory  to 
both  of  us ;  and  this  I  could  hardly  expect  to  do  by  seek- 
ing to  induce  you  to  undertake  a  work  of  such  length,  of 
which  neither  yourself,  nor  any  person  in  whom  you  con- 
fide, ever  heard  a  line. 

"  My  suggestion,  then,  is  this :  that  inasmuch  as  you 
appear  satisfied  with  the  general  character  of  the  work, 
and  the  industry  employed  on  it,  the  point  on  which  alone 
you  will  require  information  is  as  to  the  clearness  and  at- 
tractiveness of  the  style,  which,  as  a  matter  of  business, 


LETTERS.  103 

will  be  your  principal  consideration.  For,  if  the  style  is 
judged  to  be  good,  as  well  as  the  facts  curious,  a  tolerable 
success  is  certain :  since  every  book  which  has  failed  has 
owed  its  failure  either  to  want  of  industry  in  collecting 
evidence,  or  else  to  want  of  lucidity  in  arranging  it.  In 
this  view  there  are  other  gentlemen  besides  those  I  named, 
with  whose  judgment  you  might  perhaps  be  satisfied.  Dr. 
Mayo  and  Mr.  Eobert  Bell  are  both  able,  clear-headed 
men ;  and  to  either  of  them  I  could  give  an  outline  of  my 
scheme  in  half  an  hour's  conversation,  and  let  them  see 
any  part  of  the  MS.  which  they  wished.  It  seems  to  me 
that,  in  justice  to  yourself,  something  of  this  sort  should 
be  done ;  for  I  do  not  like  the  idea  of  my  having  refused 
your  first  proposal  of  having  the  MS.  examined  by  a  friend 
of  yours,  and  eventually  no  examination  taking  place  at 
all.  In  such  an  arrangement  there  is  no  reciprocity,  and 
you  would  be  placing  a  confidence  in  my  abilities,  which  a 
man  still  unknown  as  an  author  can  not  reasonably  expect. 
"  In  regard  to  the  terms  of  publication,  this  much  I 
believe  was  arranged  with  your  son  as  a  preliminary  to  the 
negotiation  :  namely,  that  you  should  pay  me  a  fixed  sum 
for  the  copyright  of  the  first  edition  of  the  first  volume, 
which,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  will  be  about  600  8vo  pages ; 
though,  until  the  notes  are  more  advanced,  I  can  only  make 
a  rough  estimate  of  the  size.  As  to  what  the  sum  ought 
to  be,  and  as  to  how  many  copies  ought  to  be  printed,  you 
are  a  better  judge  than  I  am  ;  and  there  can,  I  think,  be 
no  difficulty  between  us  on  that  head.  Bat  even  this  part 
of  the  business  would  be  easier  adjusted  if  you  knew  more 
of  the  probable  popularity  of  the  work ;  and  on  this,  as 
on  other  grounds  I  have  mentioned,  I  wish  you  to  have  an 


104  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

opinion  in  which  you  could  place  confidence.  If,  however, 
you  are  really  satisfied  with  the  matter  as  it  stands,  and 
desire  no  examination  of  the  MS.,  I  will  add  on  my  own 
behalf  that  I  am  deeply  impressed  with  the  importance  of 
a  clear  and  popular  style,  and  that  I  have  made  great  and 
constant  efforts  to  attain  it. 

"  I  now  leave  the  matter  entirely  in  your  hands.  I 
have  done  what  I  think  just,  in  proposing  that  you  should 
have  the  opinion  of  a  third  party ;  but,  if  you  deem  this 
unnecessary,  then  my  suggestion  is  that  an  edition  of  1,500 
copies  should  be  printed,  and  that  you  should  state  the  sum 
you  will  pay  for  the  copyright  of  that  edition." 

"  59  OXFOKD  TERRACE,  llth  July,  1856. 

"  DEAK  Sm  :  By  your  letter  of  yesterday,  I  understand 
that  you  offer  to  print  an  edition  of  my  first  volume  at 
your  own  cost  and  risk ;  and  that  you  propose,  as  soon  as 
it  is  ready  for  publication,  to  pay  me  a  sum  equal  to  one 
half  the  profits  upon  that  edition. 

"  This  proposal,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  seems  fair  and 
liberal,  and  I  am  willing  to  accept  it — but  not  exactly  in 
this  form.  You  will  perhaps  remember  that  from  the  be- 
ginning I  stated  that  I  disliked  uncertain  arrangements, 
and  that  my  wish  was  to  receive  a  fixed  and  definite  sum 
for  the  copyright  of  the  first  edition.  To  this  you  agreed, 
and  the  only  question  now  between  us  is  to  name  the  sum. 
I  am  quite  willing  to  take,  as  a  basis  of  the  arrangement, 
half  the  estimated  profits ;  and,  with  your  experience  of 
books,  it  will  be  easy  for  you  to  form  an  idea  of  what  that 
will  be.  The  volume  will  be  rather  more  than  600  pages 
8vo,  about  the  size  of  Macaulay  (i.  e.,  calculating  the  same 


LETTERS.  105 

number  of  words  on  the  page  as  in  one  of  his  volumes), 
and,  as  the  notes  will  be  numerous,  you  would  probably 
think  sixteen  shillings  a  fair  price  at  which  to  publish  it. 
Supposing,  then,  a  thousand  copies  are  printed,  you  will 
be  able  to  estimate  the  half  profits ;  because  I  have  taken 
the  greatest  possible  care  in  preparing  the  MS.  so  that  the 
corrections  of  the  press  will  be  very  trifling. 

"  Whatever  sum  you  agree  to  pay  me  will,  of  course, 
include  such  corrections  as  even  a  careful  copy  may  be 
supposed  to  require  (that  is  to  say,  I  am  not  to  be  charged 
with  them) ;  but  if  I  make  any  alterations  of  extent,  such 
as  interpolating  or  omitting  sentences,  I  shall  be  willing 
and  desirous  to  pay  for  them  myself. 

"  I  should  wish  to  have  twelve  copies  delivered  to  me 
free  of  charge  for  presentation  to  my  friends.  As  to  send- 
ing any  copies  to  the  reviews  and  newspapers,  that  I  take 
for  granted  is  your  concern. 

"  In  regard  to  any  future  edition,  it  will  naturally  be 
my  wish  to  remain  in  your  hands ;  but  I  can  not  formally 
bind  myself  down  to  any  such  engagement,  because,  to  do 
so  would  in  fact  be  surrendering  the  control  of  my  own 
property ;  it  would  be  equivalent  to  selling  the  copyright 
without  reaping  the  advantages  of  the  sale,  since  it  would 
be  a  compact  which  would  bind  me  without  binding  you. 

"If  what  I  have  said  meets  your  views,  it  only  remains 
for  you  to  fix  a  specified  sum,  as  that  was  the  condition 
mentioned  at  our  first  interview. 

"  I  hope  that  you  will  consider  what  I  have  written  as 
satisfactory.  You  have  acted  very  frankly  with  me,  and 
I  wish  to  do  the  same  with  you. 

"  Believe  me,  etc." 


106  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  I  leave  town  early  on  Wednesday,  16th.  If  you  wish 
to  see  me,  I  am  always  at  home  in  the  morning ;  but  I  hope 
there  will  be  no  further  difficulty  to  give  you  the  trouble 
of  calling,  and  that  a  letter  will  be  sufficient." 

"TUNBRIDGE  WELLS,  MOUNT  EDGECUMBE  COTTAGE, 

"20tJiJuly,  1856. 

"  DEAK  SIR  :  Judging  from  your  letter,  the  obstacles  to 
further  negotiation  appear  insuperable.  It  will  therefore 
be  better  that  the  matter  should  end  here. 

"  I  am  sorry  that  you  should  have  had  so  much  un- 
necessary trouble." 

"TimBKiDGE  WELLS,  27th  July,  1856. 

"  DEAK  MKS.  GREY  :  .  .  .  .  The  air  here  is  really  so 
fine,  and  my  mother  is  so  much  improving  in  it,  that  I  am 
almost  beginning  to  like  the  country.  A  frightful  and 
alarming  degeneracy  !  Pray  God  that  my  mind  may  be 
preserved  to  me,  and  that  the  degradation  of  taste  does 
not  become  permanent. 

"  I  am  as  well  as  ever,  and  I  think  as  busy  as  ever : 
deeply  immersed  in  comparative  anatomy,  the  dryness  of 
which  I  enliven  by  excursions  into  free  will  and  predesti- 
nation. I  find  that  physiology  and  theology  correct  each 
other  very  well ;  and,  between  the  two,  reason  holds  her 
own.  My  mother  writes  to-day  to  Miss  Shirreff  to  try 
and  coax  her  to  come  and  stay  with  us.  She  sends  her 
love,  and  hopes  that,  if  you  and  Mr.  Grey  can  not  come 
here  for  the  summer,  you  will  at  all  events  take  a  run 
down  when  Miss  Shirreff  is  with  us  :  and,  if  you  get  rooms 
at  the  Ephraim  hotel,  we  can  all  breakfast  and  dine  to- 
gether ;  as  our  cottage  is  large  enough  for  that,  though  it 
has  but  few  bedrooms. 


LETTERS.  107 

"  The  negotiation  with  Mr.  Parker  is  off :  he  wanted 
to  bind  me  down  respecting  subsequent  editions,  and  I  did 
not  choose  to  be  bound.  It  is  not  very  important,  and  I 
am  glad  that  something  is  settled. 

"  Do  you  keep  a  look-out  as  to  the  i  Examiner.'  If 
there  is  a  review  of  *  Self -Culture,'  and  you  buy  the 
paper,  please  to  send  it  to  me.  I  shall  be  very  anx- 
ious to  know  about  it." 

"  TUNBRIDGE  WELLS,  28th  August,  1856. 
"  DEAK  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :  You  do  both  me  and  your- 
self great  injustice  by  calling  your  criticism  'unsought? 
So  far  from  this,  I  find  your  suggestions  too  valuable  not 
to  ask  for  them  ;  and  I  have  adopted  at  least  five  out  of 
six  of  every  emendation  you  proposed.  In  regard  to  the 
more  general  objections  contained  in  your  letter,  I  see 
considerable  force  in  them :  but,  as  they  do  not  strike  at 
any  great  principle,  or  even  at  the  accuracy  of  any  par- 
ticular fact,  it  seems  hardly  worth  while  to  undergo  the 
labor  of  rewriting  and  rearranging  so  large  a  part  of  the 
MSS.  Such  alteration  in  any  chapter  would  also  com- 
pel me  to  alter  the  notes  belonging  to  that  chapter,  as 
they  are  consecutively  numbered,  and  could  not  be  altered 
without  defacing  the  text.  Unless,  therefore,  there  is  any- 
thing fundamentally  vicious  in  the  arrangement  and  pro- 
portion of  the  different  parts,  I  would  not  change  them 
now.  Besides  this,  I  may  fairly  say  that  I  have  bestowed 
considerable  thought  on  the  general  scheme,  and  I  think 
that  I  could  bring  forward  arguments  (too  long  for  a  let- 
ter) to  justify  the  apparently  disproportionate  length  of 
the  notice  of  Burke  and  Bichat.  As  to  the  French  Protes- 


108  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

tants,  I  am  more  inclined  to  agree  with  you :  though,  even 
here,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  general  historians  represent 
the  struggle  between  Protestants  and  Catholics  as  always 
a  struggle  between  toleration  and  intolerance ;  and,  as  I 
assert  that  the  triumph  of  the  Catholic  party  in  France 
has  increased  toleration,  I  thought  myself  bound  to  sup- 
port with  full  evidence  what  many  will  deem  a  paradoxi- 
cal assertion.  Eead,.for  instance,  Smedley's  *  History  of 
the  Keformed  Church  of  France,'  which  is  constantly 
appealed  to  as  an  authority,  and  is  the  most  elaborate 
work  in  English  on  the  subject,  and  in  it  you  will  see  how 
completely  the  author  has  misrepresented  the  contest  of 
the  two  parties  under  Louis  XIII.  Even  Sismondi,  lib- 
eral as  he  is,  does  not  treat  the  Catholics  fairly.  I  have 
also  worked  this  part  of  the  subject  at  the  greater  length, 
because  I  thought  it  confirmed  one  of  the  leading  propo- 
sitions in  my  fifth  chapter,  to  the  effect  that  religious 
tenets  do  not  so  much  affect  society  as  they  are  affected  by 
it.  I  wished  to  show  how  much  more  depends  on  circum- 
stance than  on  dogma:  it  was  therefore  useful  to  prove 
that,  though  the  Catholics  are  theoretically  more  intolerant 
than  the  Protestants,  they  were  in  France  practically  more 
tolerant ;  and  that  this  arose  from  the  pressure  of  general 
events." 

"  TUNBBIDGE  WELLS,  8th  October,  1856. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :  My  mother  is  as  well  as  when 
you  were  here.  Her  loss  of  speech,  which  lasted  for  a 
few  minutes,  has  left  no  mischief  behind  so  far  as  one  can 
perceive  ;  only  it  is  disheartening  to  see  that  with  the  ut- 
most care  so  little  has  been  done  toward  preventing  such 
attacks.  But  Mr.  Eix,  in  whom  I  place  some  confidence, 


LETTERS.  109 

assures  me  most  positively  that  she  is  upon  the  whole 
steadily  improving ;  and  he  makes  little  account  of  her 
late  temporary  seizure.  On  the  29th  we  separate :  she  to 
Boulogne,  I  to  London. 

"  In  regard  to  your  publishing  translations,  I  thought, 
and  still  think,  that,  looking  at  your  remote  interests,  the 
step  is  not  advisable.  But  I  had  then  hoped  that  before 
this  time  you  would  be  fit  for  real  work ;  and,  as  I  fear 
that,  though  better,  you  are  still  hardly  in  a  state  to  go  on 
with  what  you  projected,  it  remains  for  you  to  consider 
how  far  it  is  worth  while  to  sacrifice  the  present  to  the  fu- 
ture. The  main  point,  I  think,  is,  what  prospect  you  have 
of  a  speedy  recovery  of  strength.  I  am  most  unwilling  to 
believe  that  you  will  be  for  any  length  of  time  unfit  for 
work ;  but,  if  there  were  reason  to  apprehend  this,  cer- 
tainly my  objections  against  your  appearing  as  a  translator 
would  be  weakened.  Wait  till  I  come  to  town,  and  we 
will  talk  it  over — for  I  do  most  sincerely  trust  that  the 
mountain  air  will  have  done  so  much  to  reestablish  you 
that  when  we  meet  you  will  have  gained  your  strength 
and  lost  your  fears.  If  not,  you  know  well  that  I  will  do 
whatever  lies  in  my  power  either  in  the  way  of  advice  or 
of  any  description  of  active  help  which  you  may  require. 
Meanwhile,  don't  try  too  much  at  present,  and  be  a  firm 
believer  in  time  and  patience.  You  say  that  you  are  bet- 
ter than  you  were.  This  is  a  clear  gain,  and  shows  the 
direction  in  which  things  are  tending. 

"  Your  letter  raises  several  questions  of  interest  which, 
if  I  had  you  here,  I  would  answer  categorically  and  dis- 
cursively ;  but  when  I  tell  you  that  it  is  now  ten  o'clock 
at  night,  and  that  I  have  had  a  hard  day's  work,  I  know 


110  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

you  will  excuse  my  not  entering  into  them  now.  I  am, 
in  truth,  so  tired  as  hardly  to  know  what  I  am  writing ; 
but  I  would  not  delay,  as  I  wished  this  letter  to  meet  you 
on  your  arrival  at  Manchester.  Only  one  thing  I  will  say 
in  regard  to  '  Diversions  of  Purley ' :  that  Home  Tooke 
was  a  nominalist  and  sensationalist,  and  that  Donaldson 
and  Bunsen  were  idealists — hence  the  opposition.  Tooke's 
book  is  a  fine  sample  of  deductive  reasoning  in  philology ; 
indeed,  he  says,  if  I  rightly  remember,  that  he  arrived  at 
his  conclusions  before  knowing  a  word  of  Anglo-Saxon ; 
so  that  his  facts  are  illustrations,  not  proofs. 

"  I  am  sorry,  but  not  surprised  to  hear  of  Hope ;  but  I 
am  glad  that  you  have  escaped  from  him  with  so  little  loss. 
As  soon  as  I  go  to  town  I  shall  see  what  is  doing  with 
6  Self-Culture.' 

"  This  is  a  sad  scrawl,  but  I  am  really  oppressed  with 
work." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  28th  October,  1856. 

"  DEAK  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  .  .  .  .  To-morrow  I  shall  go 
to  Petheram,  to  show  him  the  notice,  or  rather,  short 
review,  of  your  book;  and  consult  with  him  if  it  is 
worth  while  to  extract  anything  to  put  in  his  catalogue. 
I  should  have  liked  to  have  known  Mr.  Puff.  I  always 
was  a  charlatan,  and,  the  older  I  grow,  the  more  the  pro- 
pensity waxes. 

"  My  mother  goes  from  Tunbridge  Wells  to  Boulogne, 
avoiding  London.  She  is,  I  think,  better  than  when  you 
were  with  us.  I  am  just  like  a  child  come  home  for  the 
holidays,  in  the  midst  of  my  toys.  "What  lovely  things 
books  are !  I  suppose  some  time  or  other  I  too  shall  pub- 
lish a  book,  but  I  don't  know  much  about  it." 


LETTERS. 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  18th  November,  1856. 
"  DEAE  MES.  GEEY  :  I  am  doubly  glad  to  hear  of  the 
article  in  the  '  Church  of  England  Review ' ;  glad  for  the 
sake  of  your  book,  and  glad  too,  as  it  proves  that  the 
orthodox  are  losing  their  power  of  distinguishing  friends 
from  enemies ;  and  this  I  take  to  be  a  mark  of  their  com- 
ing fall,  for  is  it  not  written  that  they  whom  the  gods  seek 
to  overthrow^  they  first  dement  ? 

"  On  Friday  next,  21st,  at  seven  I  shall  wait  upon  you 
with  the  feeling  of  respect  that  your  note  naturally  in- 
spires." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  15th  December,  1856. 

"  DEAE  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :....!  am  certainly  better, 
and  fully  intend  returning  from  the  sea 12  vigorous  and  (if 
anybody  contradicts  me)  dangerous.  At  present  I  am 
safe,  cowardly,  and  taciturn. 

"  I  have  very  good  accounts  from  my  mother." 

"  BOULOGNE-SUR-MER,  %2d  December,  1856. 

"  DEAE  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :  You  asked  me  to  let  you  know 
how  I  was  going  on,  and  although  I  can  not  give  a  favorable 
account,  I  will  not  be  so  insensible  to  your  kindness  as  to 
delay  writing  any  longer. 

"  Dr.  Allatt  precisely  confirms  what  Mr.  Morgan  said 
in  London — that  I  am  weak,  with  low  fever  hanging  about 
me.  I  am  to  live  well,  and  take  quinine — both  of  which 
I  have  done  since  coming  here,  but  without  much  effect. 
Fortunately,  I  only  feel  weak  physically,  and  am  as  fit  for 
head  work  as  I  ever  was.  This  is  a  great  comfort  to  me, 
and  I  am  only  sorry  not  to  get  on  with  my  first  volume ; 

12  Boulogne. 


112  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

though,  if  I  were  in  town,  I  should  probably  feel  the 
fatigue  too  much  of  moving  and  opening  books  for  verify- 
ing my  notes.  Dr.  Allatt  suspects  that  the  brain  has  been 
overworked,  but  says  he  will  not  speak  positively  at  present; 
at  all  events,  he  thinks  there  is  nothing  which  I  shall  not 
soon  get  over ;  but  he  strongly  urges  my  putting  aside  my 
first  volume  for  the  present.  To  lose  another  season  would 
be  a  great  vexation  to  me ;  and  then,  too,  these  early  checks 
make  me  think  mournfully  of  the  future.  If  I  am  to  be 
struck  down  in  the  vestibule,  how  shall  I  enter  the  temple  ? 
"  I  shall  certainly  stay  here  till  the  end  of  this  month ; 
and,  then  if  I  am  not  better,  there  is  nothing  for  it  but 
traveling,  as  while  I  am  stationary  I  must  work." 

It  was  indeed  no  wonder  that  at  last  his  health  began 
to  feel  the  strain.  No  doubt  personal  experience  origi- 
nated his  "  strong  suspicion  "  that,  "  with  a  given  mind, 
there  must  and  will  be  a  certain  physical  structure,  of 
which  we  may  modify  the  effects,  but  never  change  the 
nature."  13  We  may  modify  the  effects,  indeed ;  but  he 
aggravated,  rather  than  mitigated  them.  The  "while  I 
am  stationary,  I  must  work,"  was  true  enough ;  but  not 
in  the  implication.  It  was  simply  impossible  for  him  not 
to  work,  and  he  worked  hard,  though  not  so  hard  as  when 
at  home,  while  traveling.  He  read  even  in  the  train. 
While,  too,  he  accomplished  his  minimum  of  seven  hours 
a  day,  his  only  relaxation  was  playing  at  chess ;  and  when 
we  take  into  consideration  that  his  weakness  was  not  so 
much  bodily  in  its  origin  as  nervous,  and  the  great  anxi- 
ety he  suffered  on  account  of  his  mother's  health,  it  is  by 

""Letter,"  July  17,  1855. 


INCKEASING  WEAKNESS  OF  MRS.  BUCKLE.        H3 

no  means  astonishing  that  the  tension  at  last  proved  too 
great,  and  his  health  broke  down.14  Miss  Shirreff  writes : 
"  His  mother  knew  too  well  that  she  could  not  afford  to 
wait.  During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1SS6  she  was 
more  ill,  and  had  a  more  general  sense  of  failing  than  she 
would  allow  him  to  know.  She  kept  up  her  courage  and 
her  spirits  for  his  sake,  lest  he  should  be  diverted  from 
his  work.  I  was  staying  with  them  for  a  short  time  at 
Tunbridge  "Wells,  and  daily  she  betrayed  to  me  her 
knowledge  that  her  days  were  numbered,  and  her  anxi- 
ety to  see  her  son  take  his  right  place  in  the  world.  She 
had  been  content  that  he  should  hide  his  bright  gifts  in 
their  quiet  home  so  long  as  the  serious  purpose  of  his 
life  required  it ;  but  now  that  it  was  partly  attained,  that 
a  portion  of  his  work  was  ready,  she  grew  eager  to  see 
those  gifts  acknowledged  before  she  herself  went  forth,  to 
be  no  more  seen  on  earth.  Chapter  by  chapter,  almost 
page  by  page,  had  that  first  volume  been  planned  with 
her,  commented  on  by  her,  every  speculation  as  it  arose 
talked  over  with  her ;  and  now  her  mind  was  oppressed 
with  the  fear  that  she  might  never  know  how  those  pages, 
so  unutterably  precious  to  her,  would  be  welcomed  by 
those  whose  welcome  would  crown  her  beloved  with  fame. 
Yet,  to  spare  him,  she  never  would  betray  in  his  presence 
the  real  secret  of  her  growing  impatience ;  only  when  we 
were  alone  she  would  say  to  me  :  £  Surely"  God  will  let  me 

14  There  are  several  indications  in  his  diary  of  great  weakness.  "  June 
24,  1856  :  Went  to  Divan.  Coming  home  through  Hyde  Park,  I  suddenly 
felt  ill,  and  fell  down  insensible."  He  does  not  say  how  he  got  home ;  and 
the  next  day  appears  to  have  been  in  his  usual  health.  Again,  October  31, 
1856,  he  writes :  "  I  sent  for  Dr.  Morgan,  who  says  that  I  am  low,  and 
the  system  generally  out  of  order." 
8 


114:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

live  to  see  Henry's  book  ' ;  and  she  did  live  to  see  it,  and 
to  read  the  dedication  to  herself,  the  only  words  she  was 
unprepared  to  meet.  Mr.  Buckle  told  me  he  bitterly  re- 
pented the  rash  act  of  laying  the  volume  before  her,  to 
enjoy  her  surprise  and  pleasure,  for  he  was  alarmed  at  her 
agitation.  Even  the  next  day,  when  showing  it  to  me,  she 
could  not  speak  ;  but  pointed  with  tears  to  the  few  words 
that  summed  up  to  her  the  full  expression  of  his  love  and 
gratitude.  She  thus  saw  her  ardent  wish  gratified,  and 
her  impatience  was  but  too  well  justified.  The  second 
volume  was  dedicated  to  her  memory  alone !  " 

He  had  at  the  end  of  the  year  decided  to  print  the 
volume  himself,  as  he  could  not  come  to  a  satisfactory 
arrangement  with  Messrs.  Parker.  "February  7th,  Mr. 
Levy  came  to  show  me  a  specimen  page  of  my  work 
printed,  and  gave  me  an  estimate.  I  settled  everything 
with  him,  and  on  Monday  they  (Levy  &  Robson)  will 
begin  to  print  and  finish  the  volume  by  the  end  of 
April."  He  then  wrote  to  Messrs.  Parker  to  ask  them 
whether  they  would  undertake  to  publish  it  on  com- 
mission : 

"59  OXFOKD  TERRACE,  17th  February,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  As  you  were  unwilling — and  perhaps 
reasonably  so — to  run  the  risk  of  printing  my  work  ex- 
cept on  conditions  which  I  was  equally  unwilling  to 
accept,  I  have  determined  to  print  it  at  my  own  expense, 
and  I  received  last  Saturday  a  proof  of  the  first  sheet 
from  Levy  &  Robson's,  who  were  strongly  recommended 
to  me  by  Mr.  Forster,  and  with  whose  care  and  attention 
I  have,  thus  far,  every  reason  to  be  satisfied. 

"  My  object  in  writing  to  you  at  present  is  to  ask  if 


LETTERS.  115 

you  would  be  disposed  to  publish  on  commission  the  fif- 
teen hundred  copies  which  I  am  printing.  In  this  way 
you  would  avoid  the  risk  of  loss,  and,  should  the  work 
prove  tolerably  successful,  you  will  have  a  criterion  by 
which  to  estimate  any  proposal  you  might  like  to  make 
for  the  subsequent  volumes,  or  for  subsequent  editions 
of  the  first  volume.  Should  the  book  fail,  you  will,  of 
course,  not  be  bound  to  continue  your  connection  with 
me  after  the  first  edition ;  and  if,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
should  succeed,  it  will  be  for  your  interest  and  for  mine 
that  the  connection  should  be  a  permanent  one.  "We 
should  in  this  way  be  united  by  the  bond  of  self-interest, 
which  seems  more  satisfactory  than  the  one  formerly  pro- 
posed. I  feel  that,  looking  at  the  character  of  the  works 
you  publish,  you  are  the  best  publisher  I  could  select,  and 
if  you  exerted  yourself  (as  I  am  sure  you  would  do)  to 
push  the  work,  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  there 
would  be  any  difficulty  about  subsequent  arrangements. 
At  all  events  you  will,  I  hope,  look  on  my  proposition  as  a 
proof  that  our  negotiation  was  not  broken  off  by  the  small- 
est want  of  confidence  on  my  part,  but  simply  by  an  im- 
pression that  it  was  not  for  my  interest  to  accept  your 
terms — though  I  must  cheerfully  acknowledge  that  I  do 
not  believe  any  publisher  ever  offered  terms  so  favorable 
for  the  first  work  of  an  unknown  author. 

"  On  Saturday  morning  I  leave  town  for  a  few  days ; 
but,  if  you  should  be  willing  to  reopen  the  negotiation,  I 
will  either  send  for  a  specimen  of  the  paper  and  of  the 
printing,  or  I  will  remain  at  home  to  see  you  any  morn- 
ing between  10.30  and  1.30  that  you  may  appoint,  if  you 
will  favor  me  by  calling  before  Saturday.'7 


116  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  2d  April,  1857. 

"Mr  DEAB  SIR:  The  volume  will  not  be  completed 
before  the  middle  of  May,  as  the  notes  are  even  longer 
than  I  anticipated,  and  require  very  great  care  in  printing. 
If,  however,  you  think  that  it  is  advisable  to  announce  it 
at  once,  I  have  no  objection. 

«  The  title  is : 

<  HISTORY  OF  CIVILIZATION  m  ENGLAND, 

4  By  Henry  Thomas  Buckle. 

*  Yolume  I. — Being  the  first  part  of  a  General 

Introduction.15 

"  I  believe  it  is  understood  between  us  that  the  issue 
of  this  edition  (of  1,500  copies)  is  a  sort  of  experiment  to 
enable  an  opinion  to  be  formed  of  the  probable  success  of 
the  book  ;  and  that,  in  the  event  of  the  whole  impression 
selling  satisfactorily,  we  may  then  (i.  e.,  if  you  think 
proper)  recur  to  the  plan  of  your  paying  a  certain  sum 
for  each  subsequent  edition. 

"As  in  matters  of  business  much  unpleasantness  is 
avoided  by  being  explicit  at  first,  you  will,  I  am  sure, 
excuse  my  recapitulating  this,  and  suggesting  that  a 
memorandum  should  be  drawn  up  stating  that  our  actual 
engagement  is  confined  to  the  first  edition  of  the  first 
volume,  and  that  you  agree  to  publish  it  on  commission 
for  me  according  to  the  terms  contained  in  your  printed 
paper.  If  this  is  contrary  to  the  usual  course,  it  will  be 
quite  sufficient  that  you  should  write  me  a  note  to  the 
same  effect,  as  I  trust  that  you  feel  as  much  confidence  in 
my  word  as  I  do  in  yours,  and  my  only  object  is  to  pre- 

15  It  will  be  observed  that  this  last  was  omitted. 


LETTERS.  117 

vent  the   possibility  of   misunderstanding   subsequently 

arising." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  3d  April,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIB  :  Your  note  is  quite  sufficient,  and  the 
advertisement  is  correct. 

"In  regard  to  boarding  the  volume,  Mr.  Bell  sug- 
gested to  me  the  other  day  that  it  would  be  better  only  to 
have  500  bound,  and  the  remainder  in  sheets ;  as  that,  in 
case  of  the  sale  being  slow,  they  would  keep  better  in 
sheets,  and  be  less  liable  to  lose  their  color.  Is  this  the 
case  ?  and  what  do  you  think  the  best  plan  ?  If  there  is 
no  fear  of  injury,  I  should  prefer  having  the  whole  im- 
pression boarded  at  once. 

"  I  shall  be  able  to  meet  your  wishes  in  regard  to  the 
point  you  mentioned  the  last  time  you  called ;  and  I  can 
appropriate  a  dry  room  to  receive  1,000  copies  until  you 
require  them,  leaving  you  only  500  at  first. 

"  Believe  me,  etc. 

"  I  am  much  obliged  by  the  good  wishes  you  express 
for  my  success,  and  I  fully  agree  with  you  that  we  shall 
get  on  well  together.  Indeed,  even  at  the  time  that  I 
thought  it  advisable  to  break  off  our  former  negotiations, 
I  always  did  justice  to  the  open  way  in  which  you  met 
me,  and  to  the  liberal  character  of  your  offer." 

"BRIGHTON,  1st  March,  1857. 

"DEAR  Miss  SHIEEEFF:  It  is  very  cheering  to  hear 
you  at  length  say  that  you  are  quite  well  and  able  to  work 
once  more  regularly;  but  pray  take  example  from  your 
former  state,  and  also  from  mine,  and  proceed  gradually. 
I  should  never  have  been  as  I  am  now  but  for  an  eager 


118  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

desire  to  save  this  season.  Indeed,  I  was  getting  half 
ashamed  at  constantly  putting  off  what  I  was  perhaps  too 
ready  to  talk  about.  However,  all  this  is  past,  and  com- 
paring one  month  with  another  I  certainly  am  not  losing 
ground,  so  that  I  have  every  right  to  suppose  that  dimin- 
ished labor  will  be  rewarded  by  increased  strength. 

"  In  a  week  or  two  I  shall  ask  you  to  revise  Chapters 
XII.  and  XIY.,  the  only  two  not  quite  completed.  My 
mother,  I  really  think,  is  better ;  but  Dr.  Bright  says  the 
greatest  caution  is  needed,  and  allows  her  to  see  literally 
no  one  except  my  sister — not  even  her  own  niece." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  30th  March,  1857. 
"  DEAR  Miss  SHIRREFF  :....!  shall  take  my  mother 
to  Brighton  the  day  before  Good  Friday  if  the  wind  is 
not  too  cold  for  her.  She  will  stay  there,  but  I  must 
return  to  town  early  in  the  week.  I  am  gaining  strength 
slowly,  but  steadily,  which  I  take  to  be  the  safest  way." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  1st  April,  1857. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  I  have  not  yet  received  your 
note  by  post,  but  shall  be  very  happy  to  dine  with  Mrs. 
Shirreff  to-morrow  (Thursday)  at  seven.  "When  you  show 
me  your  Philos.  Transac.  I  shall  be  better  able  to  advise 
you  about  them. 

"  I  will  not  delay  a  post  in  writing,  and  therefore  have 
had  no  time  yet  to  look  at  your  notes,  but  am  half  inclined 
to  be  vexed  at  your  thinking  it  necessary  to  apologize 
for  their  freedom.  Let  them  be  as  free  and  hostile  as 
they  may,  I  well  know  the  spirit  in  which  they  are 
dictated." 


LETTER  TO  MRS.   GREY.  119 

"BRIGHTON,  18th  April,  1857. 

"  DEAR  MRS.  GREY  :  I  shall  return  to  town  on  Mon- 
day, and  am  vexed  to  think  that  you  are  to  leave  London 
just  as  I  enter  it.  Thanks  much  for  the  offer  of  Miss 
ShirrefFs  aid.  Perhaps,  as  you  have  Descartes,  she  will 
take  the  trouble  of  verifying  the  references  from  his 
work,  if  you  will  send  them  to  Chester  Street. 

"  I  forget  whether  or  not  I  asked  you  some  time  ago 

(as  I  intended  to  do)  to  write  to  Mrs. (I  don't  know 

if  I  spell  rightly  the  name  of  your  friend  in  Stockholm), 
for  information  respecting  Swedish  and  other  books  on 
the  'Life  of  Christina.'  Captain  Woodhead  is  engaged 
by  my  advice  on  this  subject,  and  is  busy  learning  Swe- 
dish ;  and  I  have  promised  to  collect  information  for  him 
in  regard  either  to  MSS.  or  printed  books.  He  meditates 
a  journey  to  Stockholm  in  the  summer,  but  it  will  save 
time  to  go  there  furnished  with  preliminary  knowledge  as 
to  the  best  sources. 

"  Please,  dear  Mrs.  Grey,  why  do  you  put  to  me  such 
puzzling  questions  ?  That  a  man  should  be  so  unfortu- 
nate as  to  be  asked  to  give  an  account  of  the  transcenden- 
tal process  in  a  note !  That  he  should  have  a  friend  who 
can  make  such  a  request!  And  then,  perhaps,  blamed 
for  not  complying  with  it !  Such  a  man  is  greatly  to  be 
pitied — particularly  when  the  poor  creature  intends  en- 
tering into  details  respecting  German  transcendentalism 
in  a  second  volume  which  he  meditates  writing,  and  which 
he  hopes  will  convey  comfort  to  those  orthodox  minds 
which  his  first  volume  may  have  embarrassed. 

"  Seriously,  however,  I  do  not  think  anything  can  be 
better  on  this  most  interesting  subject  than  the  passages 


120  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

I  have  collected  from  Kant  (at  end  of  Chapter  I.),  in 
which  he  vindicates  transcendentally  the  freedom  which 
he  destroys  logically.  The  logical  deals  with  the  universal 
understanding;  the  transcendental  with  the  individual 
reason.  The  first  explains  without  feeling;  the  second 
feels  without  explaining.  The  first  being  performed  by 
one  mind  may  be  repeated  and  imitated  by  another.  The 
second  is  by  its  nature  incapable  of  being  copied  because 
it  concerns  an  eminently  individual,  and,  as  it  were,  an 
isolated  process.  Therefore  it  is  that  logical  truths  are 
dependent  upon  the  age  in  which  they  are  found.  That 
is  to  say,  the  state  of  surrounding  knowledge  supplies  the 
major  premise.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  transcendental 
process,  the  mind  itself  supplies  the  major  premise.  From 
this  it  appears  that,  if  two  minds  are  exactly  of  the  same 
nature,  they  will  arrive  at  the  same  transcendental  con- 
clusions, whatever  be  the  difference  of  country  or  age  in 
which  they  live.  In  regard,  however,  to  their  logical  con- 
clusions, they  will  arrive  at  different  results  in  proportion 
as  the  varieties  of  their  surroundings.  Knowledge  sup- 
plies them  with  different  ideas.  Or,  to  give  another  illus- 
tration, the  transcendental  is  statical ;  the  logical  is  dyna- 
mical. 

"  There  are  extremely  few  persons  (indeed,  only  two 
besides  yourself)  to  whom  I  would  have  written  all  this  : 
because,  setting  a  high  value  on  clearness,  I  dislike  the 
appearance  of  mysticism.  But  I  know  you  well  enough 
to  feel  sure  that  you  will  not  accuse  me  of  affecting  ob- 
scurity in  a  matter  which  is  rather  dark  than  difficult. 
Still,  I  am  fearful  that  you  will  not  quite  catch  my  mean- 
ing. Do  not  keep  this  letter,  but  make  a  memorandum 


LETTER  TO  MRS.  BOWYEAR.  121 

of  the  heads,  and  when  we  meet  I  will  try  and  explain 
what  I  have  said.  But  oblige  me  by  putting  the  letter 
itself  in  the  fire ;  as  I  do  not  care  about  having  my  opin- 
ions on  these  most  sacred  subjects  discussed.18 

"  I  should  like  to  have  a  line  or  two  from  you  (to  Ox- 
ford Terrace)  to  say  how  far  our  minds  have  met  on  com- 
mon ground  in  this  field  of  thought.  One  thing,  at  least, 
I  know — that  we  both  respect  each  other's  convictions. 

"  I  am,  etc. 

"My  mother  is  really  better.  She  sends  her  kind 
love.  I  wish  you  and  she  could  see  more  of  each  other. 
She  has  gone  through  the  process  of  which  we  have  been 
speaking." 

He  writes  to  Mrs.  Bowyear  on  the  same  subject  as 
follows : 

"  You  remind  me  that  I  have  not  answered  your  for- 
mer questions  respecting  transcendental  convictions,  and 
the  relation  between  them  and  religious  belief ;  the  reason 
of  my  silence  is  the  impossibility  of  treating  such  subjects 
in  a  letter.  In  conversation  you  would  raise  difficulties 
and  ask  for  further  information  on  what  seemed  obscure, 
but  you  can  not  cross-examine  a  letter,  and  on  subjects  of 
such  immense  difficulty  I  fear  to  be  misunderstood ;  and 
I  shrink  from  saying  anything  that  might  give  a  painful 
direction  to  your  speculations.  In  regard  to  books,  on 
this  there  is  nothing  in  English,  and  what  perhaps  I  should 
most  recommend  are  the  minor  works  of  Fichte,  which  I 
could  lend  you  if  you  find  yourself  strong  enough  in  Ger- 

16  This  letter  was  kept  by  permission  given  afterward. 


122  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

man  to  master  them.  The  difference  between  the  tran- 
scendental operations  of  the  reason  and  the  empirical 
operations  of  the  understanding  is  also  worked  out  by 
Kant,  and  at  the  end  of  my  first  chapter  you  will  find  all 
the  passages  collected  in  which  that  wonderful  thinker 
applies  this  difference  to  solve  the  problem  of  free  will 
and  necessity.  Coleridge  saw  the  difficulty,  but  dared  not 
investigate  it.  Miserable  creatures  that  we  are,  to  think 
that  we  offend  God  by  using  with  freedom  the  faculties 
that  God  has  given  us  !  There  is  only  one  safe  maxim  on 
these  questions,  viz.,  that,  if  we  strive  honestly  after  the 
truth,  we  satisfy  our  conscience,  and,  having  done  all  that 
lies  in  our  power,  may  wash  our  hands  of  the  result.  If 
this  maxim  be  neglected,  then  investigations  will  only  lead 
to  a  life  of  misery,  and  had  far  better  be  left  alone." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  30th  April,  1857. 
"DEAB  Mus.  GKET:  I  inclose  pp.  481  to  512,  the 
only  two  sheets  which  you  have  missed.  What  you  say 
about  Descartes  absenting  himself  from  France  is  quite 
true,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  did  so  for  liberty's 
sake,  though,  if  I  remember  rightly,  the  very  imperfect 
account  of  him  in  the  '  Biographic  Universelle ' 17  asserts 
that  such  was  his  motive.  But  in  his  correspondence  he 
says  that  his  object  in  going  to  Holland  was  to  separate 
himself  from  his  friends  that  he  might  meditate  uninter- 

17  "  Revenu  des  ses  voyages,  il  jeta  un  coup-d'oeil  sur  les  diverges  occu- 
pations des  hommes ;  il  sentit  que  la  seule  qui  lui  convint  6 tait  la  culture  de 
sa  raison ;  mais  comme  tout  6tait  extreme  dans  cette  ame  ardente,  il  crut 
que  s'il  restait  en  France  il  ne  serait  ni  assez  seul  ni  assez  libre ;  il  vendit 
une  partie  de  son  bien,  et  se  retira  en  Hollande  (1629),  comme  dans  un 
sejour  tranquille,  particulierement  propre  a  la  paix  et  a  la  liberte  de  ses 
meditations." 


PUBLICATION  OF  THE  HISTORY.  123 

ruptedly ;  and  certainly  there  was  at  that  time  less  free 
discussion  in  Holland  than  in  France.  In  regard  to  his 
subsequent  visit  to  Sweden,  it  was  partly  to  procure  a 
settlement  (his  pecuniary  affairs  being  deranged),  and 
partly  from  real  admiration  for  that  most  remarkable  and 
cruelly  maligned  woman,  Christine. 

"  In  regard  to  the  note  on  the  crystalline  lens,  I  confess 
that  I  think  you  are  right,  and  therefore  I  am  wrong.  My 
mind,  and  hence  my  reading,  is  too  discursive,  and,  what 
is  worse,  the  discursiveness  is  too  ostentatiously  displayed, 
as  I  clearly  perceive  now  that  the  volume  is  printed.  This 
is  fortunately  rather  a  blemish  than  an  error,  as  the  argu- 
ments and  facts  which  form  the  framework  of  the  book 
remain  intact. 

"My  mother  is  a  little  better,  and  writes  very  san- 
guinely  about  herself.  I  do  not  get  up  my  strength  as  I 
ought,  and  don't  expect  much  improvement  till  I  am 
through  the  press.  .  .  . 

"  Observe  that  Descartes'  works  were  not  prohibited 
in  France  during  his  lifetime,  and  therefore  a  fortiori 
why  should  his  person  have  been  attacked  ? 

"  I  shall  insert  a  note  at  the  end  of  Chapter  YIII.  to 
say  that  Descartes  died  in  Sweden.  Thanks,  very  much, 
dear  Mrs.  Grey,  for  your  criticisms.  They  are  useful  to 
me,  and  I  am  also  glad  to  have  them  as  showing  the  inter- 
est you  take  in  what  I  am  doing." 

The  long-delayed  work,  which  at  last  had  to  be  printed 
at  the  author's  expense,  at  length  appeared,  and  met  with 
an  almost  instantaneous  success.  In  London  it  became 
the  talk  of  the  season,  and  its  author  the  lion  of  the  sea- 


124:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

son.  There  was  so  nrncli  originality,  such  power,  such 
industry,  and  such  fearlessness,  that  public  curiosity  was 
piqued  to  meet  the  obscure  author.  Courted,  feasted,  and 
caressed  in  private,  he  was  attacked  in  public  by  the  mass 
of  reviews.  But,  as  he  once  said  at  Cairo,  "  the  people  of 
England  have  such  an  admiration  of  any  kind  of  intellec- 
tual splendor  that  they  will  forgive  for  its  sake  the  most 
objectionable  doctrines,"  and  his  brilliant  conversation  was 
an  additional  incentive  to  all  who  met  him  to  make  his 
acquaintance ;  while,  as  he  writes  to  Mr.  Capel,18  "  If  I 
had  written  more  obscurely,  I  should  have  excited  less 
anger,"  it  had  the  effect  of  selling  his  book  the  quicker. 
"If  men  are  not  struck  down  by  hostility,  they  always 
thrive  by  it,"  he  writes,19  and  he  had  sold  675  copies  of 
the  edition  at  the  end  of  the  year  of  its  publication.  Mr. 
Parker  agreed  to  buy  a  new  edition  of  2,000  copies  for 
£500.  It  found  its  way  all  over  the  Continent.  The  Amer- 
icans began  reprinting  it  the  same  year  that  it  was  pub- 
lished, and,  in  May,  he  had  a  visit  from  a  Russian  gentle- 
man, who  told  him  of  its  success  at  Moscow. 

It  was,  of  course,  impossible  for  Buckle  to  answer  the 
very  numerous  attacks  that  were  made  upon  him  from  all 
quarters.  Had  he  done  so,  he  would  never  have  written 
anything  more.  But  he  collected  and  read  them.  In  Oc- 
tober, 1858,  he  writes  to  Miss  Shirreff:  "As  I  collect 
every  criticism  on  my  work,  I  wish  you  would  let  me 
know  the  date  of  the  ....  Such  things  in  after  years  will 
be  very  interesting.  Besides  this,  I  want  my  book  to  get 
among  the  mechanics'  institutes  and  the  people;  and,  to 
tell  you  the  honest  truth,  I  would  rather  be  praised  in 

18  24th  October,  1857.  19  September,  1861. 


CRITICISM.  125 

popular  and,  as  you  rightly  call  them,  vulgar  papers,  than 

in  scholarly  publications.     The  and  are  no 

judges  of  the  critical  value  of  what  I  have  doije ;  but  they 
are  admirable  judges  of  its  social  consequences  among 
their  own  class  of  readers.  And  these  are  they  whom  I 
am  now  beginning  to  touch,  and  whom  I  wish  to  move." 

The  greater  number  of  the  objections  brought  against 
his  arguments  by  the  various  reviewers  would,  taken  to- 
gether, almost  answer  each  other ;  and  any  one  who  might 
feel  inclined  to  try  will  find  a  list  of  them  at  the  end  of 
this  work.  Buckle  publicly  answered  only  one,20  which 
he  selects  because  of  the  "  marvelous  ignorance  "  it  dis- 
plays, and  which  he  uses  as  a  vehicle  to  warn  the  public 
against  lending  too  much  weight  to  such  ephemeral  pro- 
ductions. But  to  his  friends  and  privately  he  justified 
himself  against  attack.  Thus,  he  wrote  "  a  long  letter  to 
Dr.  Lyon  Playfair21  in  answer  to  one  just  received  respect- 
ing my  chemical  views  of  cheap  food " ;  wrote 2a  "  a  long 
letter  to  Vice-Chancellor  "Wood  in  answer  to  a  long  letter 
from  him  objecting  to  my  superiority  of  intellectual 
laws";  and  again,  "to  Professor  "Wheatstone,  justifying 
my  assertion  that  Malus  discovered  the  polarization  of 
light." 

u  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  31st  October,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAK  VICE-CHANCELLOR  : 23 1  can  not  sufficiently 
thank  you  for  your  interesting  letter — interesting  inasmuch 
as  it  deals  with  a  most  important  subject  which  has  cost 
me  some  years  of  anxious  reflection ;  and,  interesting  in  a 

20  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  5,  note  6. 

21  October  18th,  1857.  M  November  1st,  1857. 

23  Lord  Hatherley. 


126  BUCKLE'S   LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

narrower  and  personal  point  of  view,  because  it  shows  the 
kindly  feeling  with  which  you  regard  my  inquiries,  even 
where  you  differ  with  their  result.  I  have  been  for  some 
time,-  partly  from  severe  mental  suffering,  and  partly  from 
overwork,  so  reduced  in  strength  as  to  be  incapable  of  sus- 
tained application  ;  and,  although  I  am  now  steadily  gain- 
ing ground,  quite  unequal  to  enter  into  so  elaborate  an 
argument  as  your  objections  require. 

"  Indeed,  it  would  under  any  circumstances  be  impos- 
sible for  me,  within  the  limits  of  a  letter,  to  make  any  re- 
ply worth  your  listening  to.  I  can  only  hope  that  at  some 
future  day  we  may  have  an  opportunity  of  talking  the 
subject  over,  when  I  flatter  myself  that  I  should  convince 
you — not  that  I  am  right  (for  our  methods  of  investigation 
are  too  different  to  admit  of  unanimity  of  result) — but  that 
I  am  not  altogether  and  thoroughly  wrong  in  ascribing  the 
progress  of  society  to  intellectual  laws  rather  than  moral 
ones. 

"In  reference  to  the  individual,  I  have  always  ad- 
mitted the  superiority  of  the  moral  elements,  which  I  as 
strenuously  deny  in  reference  to  the  organization  of  soci- 
ety. I  have  not  made  the  admission  in  my  book,  simply 
because  my  inquiry  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  individual, 
but  is  solely  concerned  with  the  dynamics  of  masses.  Thus, 
for  instance,  when  I  say  that  the  marriages  annually  con- 
tracted by  a  nation  are  uninfluenced  by  personal  considera- 
tions, I  am  surely  justified  in  a  scientific  point  of  view  in 
making  this  statement ;  because,  although  each  individual 
is  moved  by  such  considerations,  we  find  that  they  are  in- 
visible in  the  mass,  and  that  the  laws  of  food  govern  the 
phenomenon  in  its  totality. 


CRITICISM.  127 

i 

"  This  way  of  putting  it  is,  I  am  afraid,  very  unsatis- 
factory— as  must  be  the  case  in  all  attempts  to  defend  a 
complicated  paradox  (for  paradox  it  is)  in  %.  few  words, 
and  at  a  short  notice,  and,  moreover,  with  diminished 
powers — for  I  have  not  energy  left  to  reopen  the  great 
question.  Still,  I  would  not  delay  a  post  in  answering 
your  very  kind  letter  and  thanking  you  heartily  for  it. 

"  The  mass  of  national  marriages  is  no  doubt  immedi- 
ately determined  by  the  mass  of  personal  consideration. 
But  this,  which  in  the  individual  is  the  supreme  cause,  is 
in  the  mass  only  the  proximate  cause. 

"  Scientifically,  we  always  look  at  the  most  remote 
cause,  or  the  highest  generalization,  which  in  this  case 
resolves  itself  into  the  physical  laws  of  food.  Here,  as  in 
many  other  things,  there  is  an  antagonism  between  prac- 
tice (which  deals  with  the  most  proximate  causes)  and  sci- 
ence (which  deals  with  the  most  remote  ones)." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  2d  November,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAK  VICE-CHANCELLOR  :  Since  I  wrote  to  you 
on  Saturday  night,  it  has  occurred  to  me  to  make  two 
remarks :  The  first  is,  that  in  from  (I  should  suppose) 
fifteen  to  twenty  different  reviews  which  I  have  seen  of 
my  work,  I  do  not  remember  that  a  single  attack  is  made 
upon  my  assertion  respecting  the  superiority  of  intellectual 
laws.  The  other  remark  I  wish  to  make  is,  that  in  what 
I  am  told  are  generally  considered  to  be  the  two  ablest 
articles  my  theory  is  distinctly  admitted. 

"  The  <  Saturday  Keview,'  July  11,  p.  39,  says :  <  We 
think  that  Mr.  Buckle  makes  good  his  point.  The  primary 
cause  of  progress  is  in  the  intellect,  but  the  subordinate 


128  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

cause — that  is,  moral  motives — modifying  the  primary 
cause  indefinitely.'  And  the  writer  adds,  what  I  fully 
admit,  that  such  modifications  are  enormous,  and  until  they 
are  ascertained  the  science  is  incomplete. 

"  The  '  "Westminster  Review '  for  October  says,  p.  396, 
1  We  may  then  very  seriously  regret,  as  Mr.  Buckle  does, 
the  common  notions  of  the  influence  of  moral  principle  on 
the  progress  of  civilization.' 

"  "Who  wrote  the  article  in  the  {  Saturday  Review '  I 
do  not  know ; a4  but  the  article  in  the  '  "Westminster '  was 
written  by  an  Oxford  clergyman  of  considerable  reputa- 
tion, and,  as  such,  not  likely  to  be  prejudiced  in  my  favor. 

"  These  facts  show  that  among  thinking  men  the  bal- 
ance of  opinion  is  not  so  entirely  against  me  as  you  sup- 
pose ;  and  you  will  perhaps  forgive  me  if  I  add  that  they 
may  possibly  induce  you  to  reconsider  some  expressions  in 
your  letter  which,  on  second  reading  of  it,  struck  me  more 
than  they  did  at  first.  You  object  against  me  the  con- 
fidence of  my  language,  and  yet  you  do  not  scruple  your- 
self to  pronounce  conclusions,  which  I  have  arrived  at 
honestly  and  with  great  labor,  to  be  glaring  fallacies.  I 
have  said,  and  I  deliberately  repeatj  that  my  inferences 
are  from  my  point  of  view  (that  is,  an  investigation  of  the 
remote  and  PRIMARY  causes  of  civilization)  impregnable. 
Unless  the  ordinary  and  received  methods  of  argument  are 
erroneous,  I  am  satisfied  that  the  superiority  of  the  intel- 
lectual laws  is  proved  both  a  priori  and  a  posteriori  ;  and 
I  am  equally  satisfied  that  this  is  only  applicable  to  the 
progress  of  society,  but  that  in  regard  to  the  individual  the 
superiority  of  the  moral  laws  may  be  proved  as  decisively. 

84  It  was  Mr.  Sandars,  whom  he  soon  after  met  at  Mr.  Parker's. 


CRITICISM.  129 

"  Yon  will,  I  trust,  accept  this  second  letter  as  an  evi- 
dence of  the  value  which  I  attach  to  your  opinion.  If  I 
cared  less  for  your  judgment,  I  should  write  Igss  earnestly ; 
but  I  can  not  sit  down  quietly  under  the  conviction  that 
able  and  upright  men  believe  me  to  have  asserted  doctrines 
which  are  erroneous,  and  which  nothing  but  their  palpable 
absurdity  prevents  from  being  pernicious. 

"You  say  that  printing  diffused  moral  truths,  and 
hence  caused  progress.  This  is  quite  true  ;  but,  if  the  in- 
tellect invented  the  printing,  it  follows  that  the  result  is 
due  to  the  original  mover.  If  I  push  a  man  against  you 
and  kill  you,  who  is  the  cause  of  the  death  ?  The  proxi- 
mate cause  is  the  man  pushed,  but  the  real  cause  is  the  man 
who  pushes.  The  object  of  all  science  is  to  rise  from 
proximate  causes  to  more  remote  ones,  while  in  practice 
(which  concerns  the  individual,  and  deals,  not  with  the 
science,  but  with  the  art  of  life)  the  safest  course  is  to  look 
at  what  is  proximate.  Therefore  I  hold  that  in  the  former 
case  the  intellectual  laws  are  supreme :  in  the  latter  case 
the  moral  laws.  To  return  to  my  illustration  :  in  practice 
you  would  save  your  life  by  avoiding  the  man  who  was 
pushed  against  you;  but  in  criminal  law  (which  is,  or 
rather  ought  to  be,  a  science)  you  would  direct  your  at- 
tention to  the  more  remote  cause,  and  prosecute  the  man 
who  pushed.  Here  is  the  antagonism  between  science  and 
art  which  lies  at  the  root  of  many  of  my  speculations." 25 

25  Of  the  reviews  I  have  seen,  Buckle's  view  on  the  superiority  of  intel- 
lectual laws  is  attacked  in  the  following : 

EEVIEW.                                                         PUBLISHED.  MONTH.  YEAB. 

"  Edinburgh  Review "       ....    Edinburgh,  April,  1858 

"  Blackwood's  Magazine " November,  1858 

"  Fraser's  Magazine " September,  1859 

9 


130  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  5fh  May,  1858. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : 2<t  In  our  conversation  last  night  you 
remarked  that,  in  speaking  of  Malus  as  the  discoverer  of 
the  c  polarization  of  light,'  I  had  used  a  mode  of  expres- 
sion which  was  not  used  by  any  writer  of  authority,  and, 
on  my  suggesting  that  Biot  had  so  expressed  himself,  you 
said  that  he  was  careful  to  qualify  the  statement  as  'polari- 
zation of  light  ~by  reflection? 

"  Of  course  I  admitted  at  once,  what  indeed  is  known  to 
every  one  interested  in  these  subjects,  that  Malus's  dis- 
covery was  as  you  stated  it ;  but  I  still  venture  to  think 
that  there  was  nothing  unusual  in  my  way  of  putting  it. 
I  now  find  on  referring  to  Biot's  '  Life  of  Malus '  ('  Bio- 
graphie  Universelle,'  vol.  xxvi.,  p.  410)  that  M.  Biot  uses 
the  very  words  which  I  have  employed,  without  the  word 
reflection.  He  says :  Malus  '  auteur  d'une  des  plus  impor- 
tantes  decouvertes  de  la  physique,  celle  de  la  polarisation 
de  la  lumiere,  naquit  a  Paris,'  etc. 

"  Besides  this,  M.  Pouillet,  in  his  f  Elemens  de  Phy- 
sique '  (vol.  ii.,  part  ii.,  p.  484,  Paris,  1832)  says  that  Malus 
'  decouvrit  en  1810  la  polarisation  de  la  lumiere.' 

"  Neither  of  these  eminent  authorities  thinks  it  neces- 
sary to  qualify  his  statement ;  and  I  do  not  see  how  any 

EBVIEW.  PUBLISHED.  MONTH.  YBAB. 

"  Dublin  University  Magazine " January,  1858 

"  National  Review  " January,  1858 

"  North  American  Review ".  .  .  Boston,  .  October,  1858 

Ibid October,  1861 

"The  Christian  Examiner ".  .  .  Boston,  .  March,  1858 

Ibid January,  1863 

"  The  Bradford  Keview " March,  1860 

The  letter  to  Lord  Hatherley  was  written  2d  November,  1857. 

26  Sir  Charles  Wheatstone. 


LETTER  TO  ME.  PAEKEE.  131 

one  can  be  fairly  accused  of  inaccuracy  in  following  their 
example. 

"  I  would  not  have  troubled  you  with  this-  letter  except 
that  your  kindness  in  suggesting  what  you  thought  a  neces- 
sary alteration  in  my  work  makes  me  wish  to  testify  the 
respect  I  feel  for  any  opinion  of  yours,  and  makes  me  also 
desire  to  prevent  your  supposing  that  I  retain  what  I  have 
written  out  of  mere  obstinacy.  I  confess,  too,  that  I  should 
be  sorry  if  able  and  accomplished  men  were  to  believe  that 
I  would  write  on  the  history  of  physical  science  without 
having  properly  qualified  myself  to  do  so. 

"  Sincerely  thanking  you  for  the  interest  you  take  in 
what  I  have  done, 

"  I  am,  dear  sir,  with  much  regard, 
"  Yery  truly  yours, 

"HENRY  THOMAS  BUCKLE." 


,  18th  July,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  "  Your  two  letters  of  the  7th  and 
llth  did  not  reach  me  till  some  ten  days  after  they  were 
written,  as  I  have  been  exploring  out-of-the-way  parts  of 
Cornwall,  and  could  not  calculate  my  movements  precisely, 
so  had  to  wait  for  my  letters  at  Penzance. 

"  I  have  now  read  the  articles  in  the  *  Athenaeum  '  and 
'  Saturday  Review.'  Of  the  former  I  say  nothing,  be- 
cause it  is  an  attack  upon  my  book,  and  no  man  is  a  fair 
judge  in  his  own  cause.  In  regard  to  the  <  Saturday  Ke- 
view,'  the  writer  has  shown  considerable  skill  in  grasping 
the  salient  points,  and,  I  think,  has  exercised  remarkable 
discretion  in  giving  no  extracts.  Whoever  he  may  be,  he 

87  Mr.  Parker. 


132  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

is  unquestionably  a  man  of  very  considerable  ability  and 
power  of  analysis. 

"  I  do  not  know  if  any  other  notices  have  appeared. 
On  the  23d  and  24th  I  shall  be  in  Bristol,  where  I  have 
.  directed  my  next  batch  of  letters  to  be  sent." 

1  'BRIGHTON,  10th  October,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAK  CAPEL  :  I  return  Mrs.  Huth's  note,  which 
I  am  much  pleased  to  read.  You  rightly  judge  that  I  as- 
sign considerable  weight  to  any  opinion  expressed  by 
thinking  women,  and  in  this  instance  I  have,  of  course, 
special  reasons  for  doing  so,  as  to  praise  her  opinion  is  to 
praise  my  own  work — and  thus  do  we  delude  ourselves ! 

"  I  agree  with  you  about  '  Eraser.'  Indeed,  the  only 
real  judgment  of  my  book  is  that  in  the  '  Saturday  Ee- 

view ' ; 38  and  even  there   the  writer  has  not  stated  the 

' 

fundamental  principles  of  my  method — viz.,  that  political 
economy  and  statistics  form  the  only  means  of  bridging 
|  over  the  chasm  that  separates  the  study  of  nature  from  the 
study  of  mind.  I  wish,  too,  that  I  could  get  a  well-written 
article  in  a  scientific  journal — not  one  reviewer  having 
grappled  (either  by  way  of  attack  or  defense)  with  my 
more  strictly  physical  views." 

"The  'Westminster'  reviewer80  brings  two  special 
charges  against  me.  He  says,  first,  That  in  the  latter  part 


28  July  llth,  1857,  and  "Eraser"  for  October,  1857.  They  were  both, 
however,  by  the  same  hand — Mr.  Bandars. 

89  A  little  before  his  death  one  such  review  appeared,  not  in  a  scientific 
journal,  but  in  "Blackwood's  Magazine  "  (November,  1861,  vol.  xc.,  No.  553, 
pp.  582-596),  entitled  "  Mr.  Buckle's  Scientific  Errors  "—but  which  is  itself, 
apart  from  other  matter,  full  of  errors  of  mere  statement. 

30  For  October,  1857,  vol.  xii.,  new  series,  Art.  No.  iv.,  pp.  375-899. 


LETTER  TO  MR.   CAPEL.  133 

of  my  volume  I  violate  my  own  method,  and  write  deduc- 
tively instead  of  inductively ;  and,  second,  That,  while  I 
deny  the  importance  of  individuals,  I  ascribe  the  greatest 
effects  to  Louis  XIY. 

"  I  answer :  First,  That  in  the  first  five  chapters  I  es- 
tablish certain  principles  by  induction,  and  in  the  next 
nine  chapters  verify  these  by  a  deductive  application ;  and 
that  this  is  not  an  infringement  of  my  method,  but  a 
necessary  change  of  it,  inasmuch  as  the  alteration  of  aim 
requires  an  alteration  of  treatment.  The  '  Principia '  are 
partly  inductive  and  partly  deductive,  but  who  on  that 
account  ever  charged  Newton  with  inconsistencies  ?  They 
alone  are  inconsistent  who  do  not  change  their  scheme  if 
the  change  of  plan  demand  it. 

"  To  the  second  objection  I  say  that  I  only  ascribe  a 
transient  influence  to  Louis  XIY.,  since  his  work  was  un- 
done by  the  reaction  of  the  eighteenth  century.  So  that 
my  general  proposition  still  holds  good — viz.,  that  in  the 
long  run  (or  on  the  great  average  of  affairs)  individuals 
count  for  nothing.  Besides  this,  I  distinctly  state,  in 
Chapter  xi.,  that  the  way  was  prepared  by  the  Protective 
Spirit  for  Louis  XIY. ;  so  that  even  his  transient  influence 
was  partly  due  to  the  action  of  those  general  causes  which 
governed  the  march  of  the  French  mind. 

"  I  shall  remain  here  probably  till  the  last  week  in 
October,  and  then  return  to  Oxford  Terrace.  I  am  cer- 
tainly better,  and  am  able  to  write  a  little  of  my  second 
volume.  I  am  now  engaged  on  the  first  chapter,  which 
contains  an  analysis  of  Spanish  civilization,  and  of  the 
causes  and  consequences  of  the  influence  of  the  Church  in 
Spain." 


134  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  TUNBEIDGE  WELLS,  13th  August,  1858. 

"  MY  DEAR  CAPEL  :  I  am  afraid  I  can't  help  you  about 
the  quotations.  It  is  se  long  since  I  paid  attention  to 
these  matters,  and,  to  say  the  truth,  it  is  the  last  point 
upon  which  I  had  expected  to  be  attacked.  You  were 
shrewd  enough  about  the  authorship  of  the  article  in  the 
c  Quarterly ' — you  know  your  own  trade-mark.81  I  wish 
you  had  told  me  how  you  enjoyed  your  trip.  I  am  quite 
well,  and  working  very  hard  at  Scotland — a  tough  morsel. 

"  I  am  almost  sure  you  will  find  something  in  *  Wet- 
stein.'  " 

"59  OXFOED  TEEEACE,  5th  August,  1857. 
"  MY  DEAR  CAPEL  :  Thanks  for  your  note,  but  I  don't 
feel  inclined  to  supply  the  American  gentlemen  with  the 
information  about  myself  in  this  indirect  manner.  They 
have  both  the  power  and  the  right  to  reprint  my  book  in 
any  way  they  choose,  but  the  notes  are  so  voluminous  that, 
unless  they  appoint  some  competent  editor,  the  volume  will 
swarm  with  blunders,  and  in  such  case  I  shall,  for  my  own 
reputation,  disavow  it  by  public  advertisement.  In  works 
of  this  character  the  usual  course  has  been  with  the  most 
respectable  American  publishers  to  communicate  directly 
with  the  author  or  with  his  publishers.  I  mean  this  has 
been  the  course  if  they  required  any  aid  or  information ; 
but  it  is  quite  unusual  for  them  to  get  their  information 
by  applying  indirectly,  and  obtaining  what  they  want 
through  the  author's  friends.  If  the  American  publishers 
have  any  proposal  to  make,  and  will  write  to  me,  I  shall 
be  anxious  to  meet  them  in  a  fair  and  liberal  spirit,  so  far 

31  Mr.  Capel  was  a  clergyman. 


r?; 

fcTdtftfrMinrf 

LETTER  TO  THEODOl 

as  is  consistent  with  the  interest   of  my  publishers,  to 
whom,  of  course,  I  shall  refer  the  matter.  .  .  . 

"Parker's  account  of  my  book.is  very  satisfactory,  and 
additional  copies  have  been  recently  taken  by  Mudie, 
making  twelve  in  all.  About  a  week  ago  twenty-five 
copies  were  sent  out  to  America  on  speculation." 

Messrs.  Appleton  reprinted  his  first  volume  without 
giving  him  anything ;  afterward,  when  the  second  volume 
was  published,  they  sent  him  perhaps  <£50.3a  He  after- 
ward wrote  to  Mr.  Theodore  Parker  as  follows : 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  9th  July,  1858. 

"Mr  DEAR  SIR:  Absence  from  town  prevented  me 
from  receiving  till  yesterday  your  very  kind  and  friendly 
letter.  I  certainly  shall  not  venture  to  write  upon  the 
civilization  of  your  noble  country  until  I  have  visited  it, 
and  satisfied  myself  in  regard  to  many  matters  respecting 
which  books  (as  you  truly  say)  supply  no  adequate  informa- 
tion. Indeed,  in  the  national  character  of  every  really 
great  people  there  is  a  certain  shape  and  color  which  can 
not  be  recognized  at  a  distance.  But,  at  present,  I  am 
exclusively  occupied  with  an  analysis  of  the  civilization  of 
Spain  and  Scotland,  which  I  hope  to  publish  early  next 
year ;  and,  should  I  fulfill  that  expectation,  I  shall  hope  to 
visit  America  in  the  summer  of  1859. 

"  In  regard  to  Scotland,  the  leading  facts  are  its  reli- 
gious intolerance  and  the  absence  of  municipal  spirit  dur- 
ing the  middle  ages.  The  causes  of  these  phenomena  I 
have  attempted  to  generalize. 

"  Spain  I  have  almost  finished,  but  I  find  a  difficulty 

32  "Atlantic  Monthly,"  p.  495. 


136  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

in  collecting  evidence  respecting  the  rapid  decline  of  that 
country  during  the  reigns  of  Philip  III.,  Philip  IV.,  and 
Charles  II.  In  investigating  the  causes  of  the  decline 
(both  remote  and  proximate)  I  trust  that  I  have  not  been 
wholly  unsuccessful.  In  Mr.  Ticknor's  singularly  valuable 
6  History  of  Spanish  Literature '  there  is  more  real  infor- 
mation than  can  be  found  in  any  of  the  many  Spanish  his- 
tories that  I  have  had  occasion  to  read. 

"  You  mention  a  book  on  America  by  a  Pole  as  being 
important,  but  I  can  not  quite  decipher  his  name.  I 
should  be  very  glad  to  buy  it,  and  if  you  would  take  the 
trouble  to  send  its  title  either  to  me  or  to  your  London 
bookseller,  with  a  request  that  he  should  forward  it  to  me, 
you  would  render  me  a  service. 

u  I  do  not  like  reading  at  public  libraries,  and  I  pur- 
chase nearly  all  the  books  which  I  use.  I  have  at  present 
about  20,000  volumes. 

"  I  believe  you  correspond  with  Mr.  Chapman ;  if  so, 
would  you  kindly  beg  him  to  send  me  any  criticisms  which 
appear  in  America  on  my  book  ?  You  ought  to  know  of 
some  which  he  would  not  be  aware  of. 

"Some  time  ago  I  received  from  an  American  pub- 
lisher a  request  that  I  would  write  my  life.  At  that  time 
I  was  very  unwell,  worn  from  overwork,  and  harassed  by 
domestic  anxiety.  I  also  thought  the  form  of  the  request 
rather  blunt,  and  from  all  these  causes  I  was  induced  to 
return  a  somewhat  curt  answer,  and  one  very  foreign  to 
my  usual  habits.  But  you  and  I  are  no  longer  strangers  to 
each  other,  and  I  willingly  send  you  the  particulars  which 
you  desire  for  your  friend. 

"  I  was  born  at  Lee,  in  Kent,  on  the  24rth  of  Novem- 


LETTER  TO  THEODORE  PARKER.  137 

her,  1822.  My  father  was  a  merchant.  His  name  was 
Thomas  Henry  Buckle,  and  he  was  descended  from  a 
family  one  of  whom  was  well  known  as  Lozd  Mayor  of 
London  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  He  died  in 
1840.  My  mother,  who  still  lives,  was  a  Miss  Middleton, 
of  the  Yorkshire  Middletons. 

"  As  a  boy  my  health  was  extremely  delicate,  and  my 
parents  were  fortunately  guided  by  that  good  and  wise 
man  Dr.  Birkbeck  (whose  name  I  believe  is  not  unknown 
in  America),  who  forbad  my  receiving  any  education  that 
would  tax  the  brain. 

"  This  prevented  me  from  being,  in  the  common  sense 
of  the  word,  educated,  and  also  prevented  my  going  to 
college.  When  I  was  in  my  eighteenth  year  iny  father 
died  (January,  1840),  and  left  me  in  independent  circum- 
stances, in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view. 

"  My  health  steadily  improved,  and  to  this  moment  I 
had  read  little  except '  Shakespeare,' '  The  Arabian  Nights,' 
and  Bunyan's  '  Pilgrim's  Progress,'  three  books  on  which 
I  literally  feasted. 

"Between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  nineteen  I  con- 
ceived the  plan  of  my  book — dimly  indeed — but  still  the 
plan  was  there,  and  I  set  about  its  execution.  From  the 
age  of  nineteen  I  have  worked  on  an  average  nine  to  ten 
hours  daily.  My  method  was  this :  In  the  morning  I  usu- 
ally studied  physical  science,  in  the  forenoon  languages 
(of  which  till  the  age  of  nineteen  I  was  deplorably  igno- 
rant), and  the  rest  of  the  day  history  and  jurisprudence ; 
in  the  evening  general  literature.  I  have  always  steadily 
refused  to  write  in  reviews,  being  determined  to  give  up 
my  life  to  a  larger  purpose. 


138  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

"  I  have,  therefore,  produced  nothing  except  the  first 
volume  of  my  '  History,'  and  the  '  Lecture  on  the  Influ- 
ence of  Women.' 

"  This,  I  think,  is  all  you  requested  me  to  communi- 
cate. Any  further  information  which  your  friend  may  re- 
quire will  be  much  at  his  service.  I  should  always  feel  it 
a  pleasure  and  a  privilege  to  hear  from  you." 33 

It  is  time,  however,  that  we  should  pause  a  little  to 
consider  the  history  which  was  emphatically  Buckle's  Life. 

33  Weiss's  "  Life  of  Theodore  Parker,"  pp.  468,  469,  L 


CHAPTER  III. 

Carelessness  of  Critics — Free  Will — Greater  Laws  including  Lesser — Influence 
of  Circumstances — Mental  Laws  the  Key  of  History  in  Europe — Compara- 
tive Influence  of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Progress — The  Claims  of  Eeligion, 
Literature,  and  Government  as  Civilizers— The  History  of  the  World  too 
vast  to  be  undertaken  at  present  by  One  Man — Why  England  is  chosen — 
Plan  of  the  Body  of  the  "  History  "—The  Qualities  needed  by  the  Historian 
— Mournful  Forebodings. 

ENOUGH  has  been  said  of  the  reception  of  the  "His- 
tory of  Civilization,"  but  a  few  words  will  be  of  use  on  its 
conception.  No  fragment  indeed,  before  or  since,  has  ever 
made  so  deep  an  impression.  The  boldness  of  its  generali- 
zations, the  vast  learning,  the  singularly  clear  and  simple 
style,  together  with  the  intimation  that  the  reader  had  be- 
fore him  in  that  weighty  volume  but  a  part  of  an  introduc- 
tion to  a  work,  must  inevitably  excite  a  world-wide  curi- 
osity. The  way  in  which  Buckle  said  what  he  thought,  de- 
spite ancient  prejudices  and  traditions,  greatly  captivated 
the  mass  and  equally  excited  the  anger  of  the  dull  and  me- 
chanic plodder,  who  is  at  once  ignorant  enough  to  consider 
himself  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  torpid  enough  to  be  posi- 
tively hurt  by  any  jog  to  the  even  run  of  his  ideas  in  their 
accustomed  groove.  But  the  very  beauty  and  perfection  of 
this  fragment  exposed  it  to  the  attack  of  disingenuous  foes, 
as  well  as  to  that  class  of  careless  readers,  who,  misled  by  the 
beauty  of  the  outline,  considered  and  criticised  it  as  though 


140  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

it  were  a  finished  drawing.  "  Mr.  Buckle  has  not  proved 
this,  and  not  proved  that,"  they  say ;  "  He  has  omitted  to 
mention  this,  and  forgotten  to  give  due  effect  to  the 
other  " ;  as  though,  forsooth,  the  work  were  finished  and 
the  proof  were  done.  As  well  might  we  blame  Fielding 
for  the  preference  Mrs.  Blyfil  shows  for  Tom  Jones  to  her 
own  son.  It  is  only  necessary  to  consider  that  we  know  the 
author's  plan  better  than  he  does  himself,  and  omit  to  read 
the  finish  of  his  novel.  Moreover,  since  these  critics  are 
unaccustomed  to  look  at  history  in  a  scientific  spirit,  and 
are  smarting  under  the  free  use  of  Buckle's  surgical  knife 
to  their  social  and  literary  excrescences,  they  are,  perhaps, 
and  not  unnaturally,  very  anxious  to  find  fault.  Despite 
many  worthy  exceptions,  we  too  often  see  death  preferred 
to  an  honorable  surrender,  and  the  pitiful  spectacle  is  pre- 
sented to  us  of  minds,  capable  enough,  reduced  by  their 
narrow  education  to  carping  criticism.  Men  who  under- 
take the  office  of  critic  should  at  least  take  the  trouble  to 
understand  their  author,  and  not  blame  Buckle,  as,  for 
instance,  M.  von  Oettingen  does,  when  really  he  is  himself 
to  blame.  M.  von  Oettingen  has  only  failed  to  under- 
stand Buckle,  and  hence  I  choose  this  instance  in  prefer- 
ence to  others,  in  which  I  might  be  led  into  saying  harsh 
things  upon  certain  authors  who  wander  out  of  their 
course  to  gratify  their  appetite  of  revenge,  and  indulge 
in  this  happiness  unhurt,  only  because  such  criticisms  are 
ephemeral,  and  must  fall  from  very  rottenness  before  the 
advance  of  knowledge.  The  instance  I  take  from  M.  von 
Oettingen  is  a  very  typical  one.  He  talks  of  Buckle's 
"  dilletante  manner,"  and  then  blames  him  for  his  asser- 
tion that,  "  In  round  numbers  .  ..  .  for  every  twenty  girls, 


CARELESSNESS  OF  CEITICS. 

there  are  twenty-one  boys  born.  .  .  .  Does  he  not  know," 
says  Yon  Oettingen,  "  that,  if  the  still-born  are  included, 
the  proportion  should  be  expressed  as  twenty-two  and 
twenty-two  hundredths  of  a  boy  ? "  *  It  is  a  pity  that  M. 
von  Oettingen,  who  is  an  able  and  laborious  man,  should 
not  have  taken  a  little  more  care  in  first  ascertaining  what 
point  Buckle  wished  to  illustrate  in  mentioning  these  num- 
bers. Supposing  he  had  been  utterly  wrong  about  the 
births,  and  said  that  more  girls  were  born  than  boys,  what 
on  earth  would  it  have  mattered  ?  All  he  wishes  to  show 
is  that  a  law  was  discovered  by  the  method  of  statistical 
inquiry,  or  observation  of  the  mass,  which  could  not  be 
discovered  by  observation  on  the  individual;  and  how 
would  the  mistake  we  have  supposed  have  affected  this  ? 
Again,  how  often  have  I  seen,  not  only  in  contemporary 
reviews,  but  in  the  current  literature  of  the  day,  an  utter 
confusion  as  to  the  sense  in  which  Buckle  uses  the  word 
skepticism  f  And  yet  he  has  himself  defined  it  more  than 
once a  as  the  spirit  of  doubt  which  makes  us  question  our- 
selves as  to  our  knowledge ;  and  not  merely  religious  skep- 
ticism, which  is  but  a  part  of  it.  "Without  this  no  one 
can  advance,  for  every  one  is  satisfied  with  what  he  knows. 
The  same  applies  to  Sir  H.  S.  Maine's  terrible  warning 
concerning  Buckle's  imprudence  in  ascribing  the  low  state 
of  Indian  civilization  to  the  fact  that  their  principal  food 
is  rice,  which,  he  says,  is  not  the  case.  If  Sir  H.  Maine 
had  read  his  author  more  carefully  he  would  have  seen 
that  Buckle  was  not  mistaken,  that  he  did  not  depend 
solely  on  old  travelers  for  his  information,  but  that,  among 

1  "  Moralstatistik,"  p.  49,  1874. 

a  "  History  of  Civilization,"  e.  g.,  vol.  L,  p.  308. 


142  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

many  other  authorities,  the  frequent  mention  of  rice  as 
the  chief  article  of  diet  in  their  ancient  codes  of  law 
shows  its  great  and  general  importance.  However,  let  us 
suppose  for  the  moment  that  Sir  H.  Maine  is  right  on  this 
point ;  again  Buckle's  argument  would  stand.  For,  in  the 
first  place,  whatever  the  food,  there  is  no  doubt  it  was 
cheap ;  in  the  second,  this  is  only  one  among  many 
causes;  and,  thirdly,  India  is  only  one  instance  among 
many  countries  of  the  same  chain  of  causes  producing  the 
same  effect. 

This  prevalence  of  misconception,  which  is  chiefly 
due,  as  I  have  already  said,  to  the  fragmentary  state  of 
the  work  on  the  one  hand,  which  supplies  only  one  side 
of  the  proof,  and  on  the  other  to  the  want  of  reiteration 
of  proof  and  example  which  would  have  been  supplied  in 
the  body  of  the  work,  has  induced  me  to  give  a  condensed 
account  of  Buckle's  work,  with  a  sketch  of  the  general 
plan.  One  thing,  however,  the  reader  should  bear  in 
mind :  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  I,  with  inferior 
powers,  should  be  able  to  write  in  a  few  pages  what 
Buckle,  with  his  vastly  superior  powers  and  great  com- 
mand of  language,  required  two  volumes,  and  more, 
adequately  to  state.  What  I  have  done  is  merely  to  show 
what  the  plan  of  his  history  was  as  nearly  as  can  be  ascer- 
tained. In  some  cases,  indeed,  I  have  attempted  to  sup- 
ply additional  illustrations  on  those  points  which  have 
been  most  criticised ;  but  nowhere  have  I  attempted  to 
strengthen  his  authorities,  for  which  the  reader  must  turn 
to  what  is  extant  of  the  "  History  of  Civilization." 

Buckle  begins  his  inquiry  into  the  laws  of  civilization 
with  an  investigation  into  the  possibility  of  the  actions  of 


FREE  WILL.  143 

man  being  determined  by  natural  laws.  If  they  are  not 
the  result  of  fixed  laws,  then  they  must  be  due  to  chance 
or  to  supernatural  interference,  and  thus,  bejug  by  their 
nature  capricious,  can  never  be  predicted,  and  the  actions 
of  mankind  can  therefore  never  be  raised  to  a  science. 
If,  for  instance,  on  dissecting  animals  we  found  that  dif- 
ferent individuals  had  a  great  variety  of  organs,  arranged 
in  no  particular  order,  and  sometimes  one  set  present  and 
sometimes  another,  anatomy  could  never  have  been  raised 
to  a  science.  If,  again,  the  chemist  found  that  under  the 
same  conditions  the  same  reactions  did  not  take  place,  or 
that,  in  other  words,  the  elements  possessed  a  will  of  their 
own  to  combine  how  they  liked,  chemistry  could  never 
have  been  raised  to  a  science.  In  the  same  way,  if  man- 
kind are  wholly  uninfluenced  by  their  general  constitution 
and  the  circumstances  in  which  they  are  placed,  their 
actions  can  never  be  predicted,  and  can  therefore  never  be 
raised  to  a  science. 

Now,  this  preliminary  question  resolves  itself  simply 
into  this :  Are  our  actions  the  result  of  free  will ;  or  are 
they  all  preordained ;  or  are  they  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other,  but  simply  the  result  of  what  has  gone  before  ?  If 
I  take  up  my  hat  and  go  for  a  walk,  is  my  will  the  cause ; 
or  has  it  been  preordained  that  so  many  thousand  years 
after  the  creation  of  the  world  an  individual  should  exist, 
who  at  a  certain  period  of  his  life  should  take  that  par- 
ticular walk  ?  or  is  it  not  rather  the  result  of  my  consti- 
tution and  the  influence  of  external  matters,  such  as  the 
physiological  want  of  air  and  exercise,  the  condition  of 
leisure,  my  power  of  walking,  my  education,  the  fact  that 
I  have  an  overcoat,  or  perhaps  that  it  is  a  fine  day,  or  that 


144  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

I  have  a  friend  to  visit,  and  a  thousand  and  one  causes 
that  no  person  can  possibly  fully  weigh  ?  Even  should  I 
toss  up  whether  I  shall  go  out,  is  not  that  action  again 
determined  by  a  similar  series  of  causes  ?  Even  if  there 
be  such  a  power  as  free  will,  it  is  most  certain  that  it  is 
closely  hedged  about  and  subordinated  to  the  action  of  its 
circumstances.  It  may  be  visible  in  the  individual,  but  in 
the  mass  is  nowhere  to  be  seen.  The  progress  of  man- 
kind is  like  that  of  a  ship  full  of  passengers,  ever  moving 
onward  in  the  same  direction,  sometimes  retarded,  and 
sometimes  assisted  by  the  weather,  while  the  individual 
passengers  may  walk  a  little  forward  or  a  little  backward, 
or  sit,  or  sleep,  and  still  progress.  This  is  what  we  see  in 
the  statistical  mirror  of  our  actions :  under  the  same  cir- 
cumstances, the  same  results ;  given  the  antecedents,  the 
result  can  be  predicted — an  impossible  consequence  were 
our  actions  undetermined  by  their  antecedents.  "While, 
therefore,  the  theory  of  predestination  can  only  be  ad- 
vanced under  the  admission  that  God  is  bad,  and  while 
free  will  can  only  be  advanced  under  the  supposition  that 
one  particular  state  of  consciousness  is  always  true 3  while 
others  are  not,  the  theory  that  our  actions  are  caused  by 
what  has  happened  to  us  before — by  which,  of  course, 
is  meant  our  inherited  internal  machinery,  the  circum- 
stances which  have  influenced  our  education,  and  the  act- 
ual circumstances  amid  which  we  are  placed — is  not  only 
highly  probable  in  itself,  but  is  borne  out  by  the  only 
method  we  have  at  present  for  showing  it — statistics  and 
history.  For  in  such  matters  the  observation  of  one  in- 

3  See,  for  a  fuller  explanation,  the  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  i.,  pp. 
12-16. 


FREE  WILL.  145 

dividual  upon  himself  is  so  liable  to  individual  perturba- 
tions that  observations  conducted  in  this  way  can  never  be 
relied  upon  to  do  more  than  confirm  conclusions  arrived 
at  by  a  larger  method.  Conclusions  arrived  at  from  the 
fact  that  they  explain  history  and  statistics  are  not  di- 
rectly proved,  indeed,  but  they  are  proved  in  the  same 
way  as  Newton  proved  the  theory  of  gravity,  and  rest  on 
as  assured  a  ground  as  the  theory  of  biological  evolution. 

Surely,  if  free  will  exists,  and  mankind  are  uninflu- 
enced by  their  antecedents,  it  is  a  marvelous  thing  that 
we  can  predict  what,  under  given  circumstances,  men  will 
do;  that  we  can  predict  the  numbers  of  persons  who 
will  marry  in  a  given  year  as  easily  as  the  number  that 
will  be  born ;  that  we  can  predict,  not  only  the  number 
of  people  who,  driven  to  desperation,  or  in  a  moment  of 
madness,  will  put  an  end  to  their  own  lives,  but  that  most 
of  them  will  do  so  in  June,  on  a  Monday,  at  about  mid- 
night, and  how  many  will  cut  their  throats,  or  hang,  or 
shoot,  or  drown  themselves ;  that  year  after  year  a  crime 
like  murder,  so  often  committed  in  a  mere  fit  of  passion, 
and  so  often  again  long  premeditated  and  carefully 
planned,  should  year  after  year  occur  with  a  regularity 
which  is  simply  inexplicable  on  the  theory  that  such 
deeds  are  uninfluenced  by  external  laws ;  that  year  after 
year  the  same  number  of  octogenarians  will  marry;  and 
that  even  the  same  number  of  persons  yearly  forget  to 
address  their  letters  before  posting  them. 

It  is  not  that,  should  the  man,  whom  circumstances 
force  to  suicide,  not  kill  himself,  some  one  else  is  doomed, 
but  that  the  man  can  not  escape  so  long  as  the  circum- 
stances are  unchanged.  We  can  picture  to  ourselves  such 

10 


14:6  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

things  in  this  way :  If  a  crowd  is  closely  encircled  by  a 
wall,  the  number  of  people  next  the  wall  is  only  regulated 
by  the  circumference ;  but  the  individuals  next  it  are  de- 
termined by  their  relative  strength,  the  position  they  held 
to  begin  with,  and  their  like  or  dislike  of  their  position. 
"  But,"  it  is  objected  by  those  who  argue  for  free  will,  "  in 
every  class  of  affairs  only  a  certain  number  of  actions  are 
possible,  and  hence  we  must  always  find  certain  of  them 
occurring  with  regularity,  provided  that  we  take  a  suffi- 
ciently large  number  or  a  long  enough  time."  Mr.  Drum- 
mond,  who  advocates  this  view,  instances  the  throws  of 
dice,  "  which  when  narrowly  viewed  seem  utterly  capri- 
cious, are  found,  when  our  observations  are  allowed  a  suffi- 
ciently wide  sweep,  to  pass  under  the  dominion  of  fixed 
rules."4  In  the  first  place  we  may  object  that,  did  we 
know  all  the  antecedents  of  the  individual  throw,  such  as 
the  original  position  of  the  dice  in  the  box,  their  weight, 
the  number  of  times  they  are  turned  over,  the  friction,  the 
angle  at  which  they  are  thrown  out,  the  height  and  the 
length  of  the  box,  we  might  predict  the  throw,  and  that, 
therefore,  if  we  take  the  word  "  chance "  in  the  strictest 
sense,  no  cast  of  dice  can  be  said  to  be  due  to  chance. 
And,  as  concerns  the  application  of  this  illustration  to 
mankind,  we  are  not  at  present  interested  to  show  that 
their  actions  can  be  predicted,  but  that  they  do  not  origi- 
nate from  bare  free  will,  and  that  they  are  due  to  various 
motives.  However,  we  can  afford  to  waive  this  objection 
because  a  direct  connection  has  been  fully  shown  between 
circumstances  and  the  actions  of  mankind.  If  Mr.  Drum- 
mond's  theory  were  true,  and  the  actions  of  mankind  were 

4  "Free  Will  in  Relation  to  Statistics,"  p.  16. 


FREE  WILL.  147 

no  more  subject  to  their  antecedents  than  impossible  dice 
from  an  impossible  box,  then,  despite  such  calamities  as 
famine  and  war,  among  the  same  number  of  people  in  a 
good  length  of  time,  the  same  actions  should  occur  with 
their  wonted  regularity.  But  how  stands  the  fact  ?  Mar- 
riage, which  being  a  legal  act  is  more  certainly  registered 
than  any  other  class  of  human  deeds,  is  found  to  be  affect- 
ed in  a  way  that  can  not  be  gainsaid :  when  the  prosperity 
of  a  country  decreases,  from  whatever  cause,  marriages 
become  fewer  between  young  people,  and  old  people  ob- 
tain for  their  money  young  husbands  or  wives. 

It  is  needless  to  give  more  such  instances  of  a  direct 
connection  of  antecedents  with  human  actions,  for  they 
have  been  patent  to  all  who  seek  them  for  the  last  twenty 
years.  But  those  who  admit  a  causal  connection  between 
circumstances  and  actions  still  stand  up  for  a  certain 
amount  of  free  will.  Yon  Oettingen,  and  even  Drummond 
in  another  place,  admits  this  causal  connection,  but  seeks 
to  explain  its  compatibility  with  the  exercise  of  choice.6 
Yon  Oettingen  seeks  to  explain  the  regularity  of  man's 

5  Thus,  Yon  Oettingen  says  :  "  Gerade  well  der  freie  Wille  keine  acciden- 
telle,  sondern  ein  constante  und  nach  gewissen  Gesetzen  der  Motivation 
wirkende  Ursache  ist,  miissen  auch  die  dieser  Ursache  proportionalen  Wir- 
kungen  eine  bei  richtiger  Analyse  und  Gruppirung  unverkennbare  gesetz- 
massige  Constanz  hervortreten  lassen." — "  Moralstatistik,"  p.  126.  And  so 
Drummond :  "  The  most  zealous  advocate  of  the  doctrine  of  free  will  must 
admit  that  man's  freedom  moves  within  very  narrow  limits.  .  .  .  Nor  does 
the  doctrine  of  free  will  teach  that  we  can  act  without  motives.  .  .  .  Upon 
this  point,  then,  the  Necessarian  and  the  Free-Wilier  are  at  one :  both  allow 
that  man  always  acts  from  a  motive.  The  former,  however,  asserts  that  he 
must  always  obey  the  stronger  ;  the  latter  accords  to  him  a  choice  involving 
moral  responsibility,  between  the  better  and  the  worse.  .  .  .  The  mind,  in 
short,  is  a  living  force ;  by  its  own  act  it  throws  its  weight  into  the  scale, 
and  by  joining  itself  to  any  one  motive  gives  this  the  preponderance  over 
all  the  rest."— "Free  Will,"  etc.,  pp.  8,  9. 


148  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

actions  by  the  supposition  that  man  is  so  made  that  he 
wills  to  act  according  to  laws,  and  which  he  calls  the  law 
of  God's  providence.6  He  does  not  seem  to  see  that  this 
is  a  mere  sophism,  and  really  means  absolute  absence  of 
true  free  will.  Mr.  Drummond,  again,  does  not  seem  to 
see  that  if  the  man  obeys  the  apparently  weaker  of  two 
impulses  by  throwing  the  weight  of  his  mind  into  the 
scale,  that  this  is  nothing  more  than  saying  that  a  man's 
actions  are  determined  by  a  variety  of  antecedents,  among 
which  are  his  constitution  and  education.  To  return  to 
our  former  illustration :  these  writers  see  that  by  the  nature 
of  things  a  certain  number  of  people  must  be  next  the  in- 
closing wall,  but  they  will  not  admit  but  that  it  is  a  free 
matter  of  choice  to  each  whether  he  will  be  next  the  wall 
or  no. 

This  is  not  fatalism,  though  it  has  been  frequently  mis- 
taken for  it.  When  the  length  of  the  wall  is  altered,  the 
number  next  it  is  different.  When  the  course  of  the  ship 
is  altered,  the  course  of  the  passengers  is  also  changed. 
But  no  one  man  can  effect  a  change  of  this  sort.  The 
mass  is  too  weighty  to  be  moved  by  his  puny  strength. 
Free  will  there  is,  in  the  sense  that  each  one  seeks  to  satisfy 
his  individual  wants ;  wants  which  are  incompatible  with 
the  wants  of  others  clash  and  are  annihilated,  while  wants 
which  do  not  clash  are  a  part  of  the  general  progress.  If 
all  are  agreed  to  alter  the  course  of  the  ship  for  Australia, 
it  can  not  be  done  if  no  one  knows  where  Australia  is,  nor 
if  the  provisions  will  not  hold  out,  nor  if  the  ship  is  a  sail- 

6  "  Moralstatistik,"  p.  747,  among  others.  "  Welches  wir  das  Gesetz 
gottlicher  Providers  oder  vaterlich  heiliger  Liebe  nennen  konnen,"  or  a  modi- 
fication of  Leibnitz's  philosophy. 


GREATER  LAWS  INCLUDING  LESSER.  149 

ing-vessel  and  the  wind  is  strongly  against  it.  No  change 
in  the  number  of  murderers  will  take  place  so  long  as  the 
causes  which  produce  murder  are  unaltered.  But  they 
ccm  be  altered,  and  are  always  changing,  not  indeed 
merely  by  alteration  of  the  laws,  but  by  alteration  in  the 
general  constitution  of  society.  We  are  wandering,  how- 
ever, beyond  what  it  is  necessary  to  show.  It  is  quite 
sufficient  for  Buckle's  purpose  if  it  be  admitted  that  there 
is  a  causal  connection  between  men's  actions  and  their 
antecedents.  It  may  be  called  free  will  if  we  like,  so  long 
as  we  admit  that,  given  precisely  the  same  antecedents, 
the  same  act  will  be  performed ;  and,  given  similar  ante- 
cedents, similar  acts  will  be  performed.  This  being  ad- 
mitted, we  admit  the  possibility  of  the  science  of  history, 
because  we  admit  that  men  are  not  different  in  their  action 
from  other  parts  of  our  universe,  and,  consequently,  could 
we  obtain  a  knowledge  of  their  behavior  after  certain  ante- 
cedents, we  may  predict  their  behavior  at  a  future  period 
under  similar  antecedents. 

Before  proceeding  further  into  an  inquiry  as  to  how 
these  antecedents  relatively  affect  men's  actions,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  draw  attention  to  Buckle's  method  of  proced- 
ure. If  we  look  at  the  ascertained  laws  of  other  sciences, 
it  will  be  found  that  there  are  some  laws  which  it  is  con- 
venient to  call  greater,  and  others,  less ;  that  is,  some  laws 
which  include  others,  as  gravitation  includes  molecular 
attraction,  or  those  which  describe  the  normal  case  and 
leave  the  minor  variations  out  of  account.  If,  for  instance, 
it  were  said  that  all  vertebrates  have  a  circulation,  that 
would  be  perfectly  true  as  a  general  description,  yet  the 
vertebrates  have  very  different  kinds  of  circulation.  If, 


150  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

again,  we  were  to  say  that  one  difference  between  mankind 
and  the  lower  animals  is  that  the  former  can  communicate 
their  thoughts  to  one  another  in  articulate  speech,  that  too 
would  be  perfectly  true  in  the  main,  though  some  people 
have  not  the  power  of  speech.  If,  again,  we  say  that  a 
stone  dropped  from  a  given  point  will  always  strike  the 
same  spot,  this  is  also  true  in  the  main,  but  the  wind  may 
in  some  cases  alter  its  direction.  In  these  cases  we  have 
a  perfect  right  to  talk  in  generalities,  just  as  we  have  a 
perfect  right  to  manipulate  figures  by  means  of  algebrai- 
cal signs.  They  are  perfectly  true,  with  the  understanding 
that  we  are  talking  in  generalities.  If,  then,  we  wish  to 
describe  a  general  law,  it  is  needless  and  confusing  to  set 
down  all  its  minor  details.  If  we  wish  to  arrive  at  the 
acting  cause  of  our  motion  in  space,  we  take  the  ultimate 
cause  as  high  as  we  can  reach  it,  and  leave  out  of  account 
such  minor  disturbing  causes  as  the  action  of  the  planets. 
The  results  thus  obtained  may  not  be  absolutely  true,  but 
it  is  unquestionable  that  scientific  truths  are  obtained  by 
these  artifices  which  could  not  be  obtained  by  endeavoring 
to  include  all  the  factors  at  once.  If  a  mathematician 
were  to  try  to  work  with  a  line  that  had  breadth,  his  con- 
clusions would  soon  become  hopelessly  confused. 

There  is,  in  short,  even  in  our  present  state  of  knowl- 
edge, a  possibility  of  determining  the  grand  laws  of  human 
progress ;  and,  as  we  progress  in  knowledge,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  we  shall  be  able  to  determine  nearer  and  nearer 
the  conduct  of  individuals.  The  mass  of  beings  are  gov- 
erned by  laws  which  we  can  even  now  follow.  The  indi- 
vidual is  influenced  by  minor  laws  which  we  can  not -yet 
determine.  It  is  as  if  we  had  discovered  the  planetary 


INFLUENCE  OF  CIRCUMSTANCES.  151 

system,  but  had  not  yet  discovered  that  each  revolves 
round  its  own  axis,  or  was  attended  by  minor  satellites 
governed  by  their  own  laws.  Given  the  prosperity  of  a 
country  and  the  number  of  its  inhabitants,  we  can  predict 
the  number  of  marriages  which  will  take  place  in  a  year ; 
but  without  further  knowledge  we  can  not  predict  which 
individuals  will  marry. 

It  is  the  business,  then,  of  a  historian  to  show  the  causal 
relation  between  historical  actions  and  their  antecedents. 
And,  since  men's  antecedents  are  both  internal,  or  mental, 
and  external,  or  physical,  the  earlier  qualifications  of  a  his- 
torian sound  nowadays  rather  ridiculous :  "  He  understood 
ancient  and  modern  history  so  exactly  as  to  be  master  of 
all  the  principal  names  and  dates !  " 7  He  must,  indeed, 
understand  every  science,  besides  the  chronicle  of  men's 
actions,  or  how  can  he  do  this?  No  one  previously  to 
Buckle  did  so.  Comte  had  no  knowledge  of  political 
economy.8  Mill  did  not  write  on  history,  and  our  most 
brilliant  historian  of  modern  times  knew  nothing  of  natu- 
ral science  and  hardly  anything  of  mathematics.9  For 
most  of  the  so-called  historians,  indeed,  a  disputed  pedigree 
is  of  far  greater  importance  than  the  system  of  thought  of 
the  country  they  are  describing. 

Buckle  set  to  work  in  a  different  way.  He  begins  by 
a  process  of  elimination  in  order  to  arrive  at  the  highest  or 
most  general  laws  which  govern  the  progress  of  mankind. 
Man's  progress  is  influenced  by  his  antecedents.  These 
antecedents  are  some  of  them  within  him,  as  we  have  said, 

7  Chalmers's  "  Biographical  Dictionary,"  Art.  Abouzit. 

8  "Philos.  Posit,"  e.  g.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  123. 

9  Trevelyan's  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay,"  vol.  i.,  87,  372,  410. 


152  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

and  some  without ;  which  of  the  two  has  the  most  influ- 
ence on  his  conduct  ?  Which  of  the  two  is  the  most  gen- 
eral and  includes  the  other  ? 10 

Now,  there  are  four  classes  of  physical  agents  which 
affect  mankind,  namely :  climate,  food,  soil,  and  the  gen- 
eral aspect  of  nature,  all  of  which  are  found  to  exercise 
a  most  important  influence  on  civilization,11  and  a  prepon- 
derating influence  in  tropical  countries.  In  these,  such  as 
India,  Egypt,  and  Mexico,  the  means  of  supporting  life 
are  cheap,  on  account  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the 
suitability  of  the  climate  to  the  growth  of  food  plants, 
and  the  little  need  of  clothing ;  with  the  result  that  popu- 
lation increases  far  beyond  the  demand  for  labor,  and  the 
price  of  labor  is  consequently  small.  Capital  is  therefore 
accumulated  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  and  a  despotism  nec- 
essarily ensues.  Moreover,  the  fierce  heat  of  the  sun,  the 
vastness  of  the  oceans,  the  mighty  height  of  the  moun- 
tains, together  with  monsoons,  tropical  storms,  the  annual 

rise  of  the  Nile,  volcanoes,  and  pther  manifestations  of  the 
„  Vx*of  a.  ^^Jy^^f  ^.  #+*<v++s*-          . 

power  of  nature,  opp¥ess--4ftftttkmd/  w5*b  a  sense  of  his  - 

insignificance,  and-^excite  his  imagination.  A  powerful 
priest]ioed-4s  called  into  being,  and  the  chains  of  slavery 
are  more  firmly  riveted.  To-  thio  olacc  all  the  earlier  civi- 


10  This  division  is  of  course  merely  arbitrary,  for  the  convenience  of 
classification  and  elimination ;  for  a  man's  constitution  is  as  much  due  to 
antecedents  lying  outside  him  as  are  his  present  circumstances. 

11  Buckle  has  been  much  blamed  in  some  quarters  for  not  naming  Race 
among  these  causes.     Such  authors  forget  that  race  is  not  a  primary  cause, 
but  a  consequence  itself  of  the  causes  mentioned.     And,  though  it  persists 
for  some  time  after  these  causes  are  changed,  it  does  not  do  so  for  as  long 
as  is  generally  supposed ;  and,  even  if  it  did,  the  racial  characteristics  are 
still  not  the  primary  cause,  but  climate,  etc.,  together  with  those  physical 
causes  which  lead  to  emigration. 


•  INFLUENCE  OF  CIRCUMSTANCES.  .  153 

/^^u^o^t^  -ctax*  4C*5t£  ^  tt-*&tt***' 

lizations  Moag,  because  in  such  countries  a  large  popula- 
tion can  exist  with  plenty  of  leisure,  even  though  the  ails 
of  commerce  and  agriculture  be  in  their  infancy.  This 
leisure  they  can  employ  in  mighty  buildings  or  laborious 
carvings,  or  poetry,  but  science  is  almost  neglected,  because 
the  imagination  predominates,  and  it  occurs  to  no  one  that 
nature  may  be  led  captive.  |/vt*^w^  ^AA*/^ 

In  Europe,  onAe-etkerMnd,  greater 'labor  is  required 
for  the  production  of  f ojod,  clothing  is  necessary,  and  the 
cost  of  living  greater.  '  Seas,  again,  are  small ;  earthquakes 
are  generally  light  and  occur  rarely;  volcanoes  are  few, 
mountains  are  low,  and  the  sun  of  comparatively  little 
power.  Hence  men  are  not  so  subject  to  despotisms,  and, 
losing  their  awe  of  nature,  they  begin  to  examine  her  and 
cultivate  science. 

"  Hence  it  is  that,  looking  at  the  history  of  the  world 
as  a  whole,  the  tendency  has  been  in  Europe  to  subordinate 
nature  to  man;  out  of  Europe,  to  subordinate  man  to 
nature.  To  this  there  are,  in  barbarous  countries,  several 
exceptions;  but  in  civilized  countries  the  rule  has  been 
universal.  The  great  division,  therefore,  between  Euro- 
pean and  non-European  civilization  is  the  basis  of  the  phi- 
losophy of  history,  since  it  suggests  the  important  con- 
sideration that  if  we  would  understand,  for  instance,  the 
history  of  India,  we  must  make  the  external  world  our 
first  study,  because  it  has  influenced  man  more  than  man 
has  influenced  it.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  would  under- 
stand the  history  of  a  country  like  England  or  France,  we 
must  make  man  our  principal  study,  because,  nature  being 
comparatively  weak,'  every  step  in  the  great  progress  has 
increased  the  dominion  of  the  human  mind  over  the  agen- 


154  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITDTOS. 

cies  of  the  external  world.  Even  in  those  countries  where 
the  power  of  man  has  reached  the  highest  point,  the  pres- 
sure of  nature  is  still  immense,  but  it  diminishes  in  each 
succeeding  generation,  because  our  increasing  knowledge 
enables  us  not  so  much  to  control  nature  as  to  foretell  her 
movements,  and  thus  obviate  many  of  the  evils  she  would 
otherwise  occasion.  ...  If,  therefore,  we  take  the  largest 
possible  view  of'  the  history  of  Europe,  and  confine  our- 
selves entirely  to  the  primary  cause  of  its  superiority  over 
other  parts  of  the  world,  we  must  resolve  it  into  the  en- 
croachment of  the  mind  of  man  upon  the  organic  and  in- 
organic forces  of  nature." 

For  European  civilization,  then^  the  study  of  mental 
laws  is  necessary;  and  the  effect  of  nature  on  mankind 
is,  comparatively,  subordinate.  How  shall  these  laws  be 
studied  ?  By  the  study  of  individual  minds,  as  the  meta- 
physicians have  attempted  ?  This  method  Buckle  rejected, 
because  he  found  that  the  ablest  metaphysicians  had  been 
led  to  opposite  conclusions  according  as  they  adopted  the 
deductive  or  inductive  method  of  investigation.  Those 
who  follow  the  first  say  that  all  men  have  "  the  same 
notion  of  the  good,  the  true,  and  the  beautiful " ;  those 
who  follow  the  second  say  "  there  is  no  such  standard,  be- 
cause ideas  depend  upon  sensations,"  and  sensations  upon 
circumstances. 

An  eclectic  school  is  impossible,  because  no  one  can 
mediate  between  them  without  being  a  metaphysician,  and 
no  one  can  be  a  metaphysician  without  being  either  a 
sensationalist  or  an  idealist;  in  other  words,  without  be- 
longing to  one  of  those  very  parties  whose  claim  he  pro- 
fesses to  judge.  So  long  as  deductive  and  inductive  rea- 


MENTAL  LAWS  THE  KEY  OF  HISTOEY  IN  EUROPE.    155 

soning  can  not  be  reconciled,  so  long  the  subject  requires 
some  preliminary  difficulties  to  be  removed,  or  it  is  not 
capable  of  scientific  treatment.  Moreover,  siich  a  method 
is  unscientific,  because  it  presumes  that  the  peculiarities 
of  the  individual  are  common  to  all.  As  well  might  we 
expect  to  discover  from  the  anatomical  construction  and 
physiological  functions  of  one  man  those  which  are  uni- 
versal, or  from  the  investigation  of  the  course  of  a  par- 
ticular disease  in  one  individual  learn  its  usual  course. 
There  is  no  reason  why  we  should  study  the  science  of  man 
after  a  different  fashion  to  every  other  science,  and  there- 
fore Buckle,  rejecting  the  individual,  studies  the  mass  of 
mental  actions  in  the  only  possible  way :  that  is,  histori- 
cally. "  It  now  remains  for  us  to  ascertain  the  manner 
in  which,  by  the  application  of  this  method,  the  laws  of 
mental  progress  may  be  most  easilv  discovered.  If,  in  the 
first  place,  we  ask  what  this  progress  is,  the  answer  seems 
very  simple — that  it  is  a  twofold  progress,  moral  and  intel- 
lectual, the  first  having  more  immediate  relation  to  our 
duties,  the  second  to  our  knowledge.  .  .  .  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  a  people  are  not  really  advancing  if,  on  the 
one  hand,  their  increasing  ability  is  accompanied  by  in- 
creasing vice ;  or  if,  on  thfe,  other  hand,  while  they  are  be- 
coming more  virtuous,  they/likewise  become  more  ignorant. 
This  double  movement,  moral  and  intellectual,  is  essential 
to  the  very  idea  of  civilization,  and  includes  the  entire 
theory  of  mental  progress.  ...  A  question  now  arises  of 
great  moment,  namely,  "Which  of  these  two  parts  or  ele- 
ments of  mental  progress  is  the  more  important  ?  For,  the 
progress  itself  being  the  result  of  their  united  action,  it 
becomes  necessary  to  ascertain  which  of  them  works  more 


156  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

powerfully,  in  order  that  we  may  subordinate  the  inferior 
element  to  the  laws  of  the  superior  one." 

This  mental  progress,  moral  and  intellectual,  can  not  be 
said  to  owe  anything  to  inheritance.  Such  a  thing  is  in- 
deed possible,  but  we  have  no  proof  whatever  of  it ; " 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  as  far  as  history  extends,  and  in 
all  countries,  we  have  records  of  men  possessing  an  intel- 
lectual power  which,  taken  as  a  whole,  has  never  since 
been  exceeded.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  indisputable  that 
human  progress  advances  with  strides  out  of  all  proportion 
to  any  possible  advance  of  intellectual  power  by  means 
of  inheritance,  and  we  must  therefore  look  to  the  causes 

12  Mr.  Galton  has,  indeed,  attempted  a  proof  in  his  "  Hereditary  Genius." 
But  the  attempt,  valuable  as  it  is  as  far  as  it  goes,  has  failed  from  the  in- 
herent difficulty  of  such  an  investigation,  and  partly,  as  it  seems  to  me,  on 
account  of  the  method  he  adopts.  The  number  of  individuals  whose  history 
he  investigates  is  small  compared  to  what  it  should  be  ;  and  the  biographi- 
cal material  at  disposal  is  lamentably  imperfect.  It  is  quite  possible  that  a 
person  may  have  great  intellectual  powers  and  not  leave  any  record  of  it. 
It  is  quite  possible,  again,  that  a  father  who  occupies  a  high  position  may 
bring  on  a  commonplace  son  by  superior  education  and  opportunity.  Buckle 
himself  had  a  strong  suspicion  that  superior  intellectual  power  was  inherita- 
ble ("  Posthumous  Works,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  326,  593  ;  and  "  Lecture  on  the  In- 
fluence of  Women  ").  He  points  out  that  we  must  not  only  inquire  "  how 
many  instances  there  are  of  hereditary  talents,  etc.,  but  how  many  instances 
there  are  of  such  qualities  not  being  hereditary  "  ("  History  of  Civilization," 
vol.  i.,  p.  161,  note  12).  The  largest  view  of  the  question  is  perhaps  that 
taken  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,  who  points  out  that  negro  children  educated 
with  whites  can  only  keep  up  with  them  up  to  a  certain  point,  and  then  fall 
behind.  Mr.  Wilson  again  ("  Prehistoric  Man,"  1876,  vol.  ii.,  p.  325)  con- 
siders such  evidence  not  reliable,  and  due  solely  to  caste  prejudice.  Lady 
Duff  Gordon,  however,  who  saw  with  her  own  eyes,  and  can  not  be  accused 
of  prejudice,  says  of  a  mixed  Herrenhut  school  at  Cape  Colony  of  blacks 
and  Bastaards  :  there  "  three  jet-black  niggerlings  .  .  .  grinned,  and  didn't 
care  a  straw  for  spelling ;  while  the  dingy  yellow  little  Bastaards  were  strain- 
ing their  black  eyes  out  with  eagerness  to  answer  the  master's  questions." 
("  Last  Letters  from  Egypt,  to  which  are  added  Letters  from  the  Cape." 
London,  1875,  p.  276.) 


INTELLECTUAL  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS.         157 

of  tliis  advance,  not  to  any  possible  inheritance,  but 
to  the  circumstances  which  surround  the  infant  after 
birth.  .*• 

"  On  this  account  it  is  evident  that,  if  we  look  at  man- 
kind in  the  aggregate,  their  moral  and  intellectual  conduct 
is  regulated  by  the  moral  and  intellectual  notions  preva- 
lent in  their  own  time,"  and  "  it  requires  but  a  superficial 
acquaintance  with  history  to  be  aware  that  this  standard  is 
constantly  changing,  and  that  it  is  never  precisely  the 
same  even  in  the  most  similar  countries,  or  in  two  succes- 
sive generations  of  the  same  country.  .  .  .  This  extreme 
mutability  in  the  ordinary  standard  of  human  actions 
shows  that  the  conditions  on  which  the  standard  depends 
must  themselves  be  very  mutable ;  and  those  conditions, 
whatever  they  may  be,  are  evidently  the  originators  of 
the  moral  and  intellectual  conduct  of  the  great  average 
of  mankind."  When,  however,  we  look  at  our  present 
knowledge  of  moral  truths,  and  compare  it  with  the  past, 
there  is  not  a  single  one  of  any  moment  that  was  not  pro- 
pounded at  least  two  thousand  years  before  Christ.  The 
grand  precepts  of  self-sacrifice,  honor  your  parents,  for- 
give your  enemies,  restrain  your  passions,  are  still  unim- 
proved upon  and  stationary.  "  But,  if  we  contrast  this  sta- 
tionary aspect  of  moral  truths  with  the  progressive  aspects 
of  intellectual  truth,  the  change  is  indeed  startling.  All 
the  great  moral  systems  which  have  exercised  much  influ- 
ence have  been  fundamentally  the  same;  all  the  great 
intellectual  systems  have  been  fundamentally  different." 
Not  only  have  the  moderns  made  most  important  addi- 
tions to  every  department  of  knowledge  that  the  ancients 
ever  attempted  to  study,  but  they  have  created  sciences, 


158  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

the  faintest  idea  of  which  never  entered  the  mind  of  the 
boldest  thinker  that  antiquity  ever  produced. 

"When,  therefore,  we  know  that  progress  depends  upon 
the  advance  of  moral  and  intellectual  truths,  and  we  find 
that  moral  truths  are  stationary,  while  intellectual  truths 
are  highly  progressive,  the  only  conclusion  it  is  possible 
to  draw  is,  that  human  progress  depends  on  the  advance 
of  intellectual  knowledge,  and  that  this  advance  is  inde- 
pendent of  moral  knowledge. 

It  may  be  well  to  notice  here  a  very  common  objection 
to  Buckle's  views,  which  appears  to  rest  on  an  imperfect 
conception  of  the  action  of  morals.  It  is  urged  by  Sola- 
vev  and  several  other  reviewers  that  it  is  not  only  new 
advances  in  intellectual  knowledge  that  work.  Suppose, 
for  instance,  that  mankind  discover  a  new  food — say  the 
potato ;  that  discovery  will  last  for  all  time  in  nourishing 
mankind.  So  a  moral  truth  is  ever  new,  like  the  law  of 
gravitation.  Moreover,  scientific  truths  exist,  and  exert 
an  influence  over  us  though  we  know  them  not.  Gravita- 
tion existed,  and  worked  the  same  as  now,  before  we  knew 
it ;  and  so  moral  laws  may  work  upon  us  and  increase  our 
civilization,  although  we  may  have  no  distinct  perception 
of  their  existence. 

This  last  objection  involves  a  misconception  as  to 
what  constitutes  progress.  Putting  aside  the  theological 
view,  there  can  be  but  one  answer,  namely,  the  attain- 
ment by  mankind  of  greater  happiness  on  earth.  "  This 

13  This,  of  course,  does  not  mean  that  individuals  may  not  occasionally 
be  made  even  more  unhappy  than  heretofore ;  but  it  is  the  greatest  happi- 
ness for  the  greatest  possible  number.  The  abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws 
may  have  made  a  certain  number  of  people  less  comfortable  than  before, 
but  a  far  greater  number  were  made  more  comfortable.  The  imprisonment 


INTELLECTUAL  AND  MORAL  PROGRESS.         159 

can  only  be  done  by  increasing  knowledge  of  the  natural 
laws,  or,  in  other  words,  by  increasing  knowledge  of  the 
invariable  sequence  of  forces.  As  long  as  we  are  ignorant 
of  any  one,  so  long  are  we  unable  to  turn  it  to  our  benefit 
— either  directly,  as  in  the  case  of  electricity,  which  we 
turn  to  use,  or  indirectly,  as  in  the  case  of  our  knowledge 
of  disease  germs,  which  we  ward  off.  As  long  as  con- 
ditions remain  the  same,  consequences  must  remain  the 
same ;  electricity  has  always  existed,  as  far  as  we  know, 
but  it  exerted  no  influence  on  progress  until  we  knew  its 
laws. 

The  other  half  of  the  argument  is,  in  short,  the  asser- 
tion that  a  constant  force  will  work  an  inconstant  effect. 
In  reality,  moral  truths,  as  compared  with  intellectual 
truths,  are  sterile.  Let  us  compare  the  two,  as  we  compare 
the  richness  of  two  languages,  by  taking  the  highest  speci- 
men of  each.  The  prodigy  of  intellectual  genius  makes 
discoveries  and  popularizes  them.  These  "acquisitions 
made  by  the  intellect  are  in  every  civilized  country  care- 
fully preserved,  registered  in  certain  well-understood  for- 
mulas, and  protected  by  the  use  of  technical  and  scientific 
language ;  they  are  easily  handed  down  from  one  genera- 
tion to  another,  and,  thus  assuming  an  accessible  or,  as  it 
were,  a  tangible  form,  they  often  influence  the  most  dis- 
tant posterity ;  they  become  the  heirlooms  of  mankind,  the 
immortal  bequest  of  the  genius  to  which  they  owe  their 
birth.  But  the  good  deeds  effected  by  our  moral  faculties 
are  less  capable  of  transmission  ;  they  are  of  a  more  private 
and  retiring  character ;  while,  as  the  motives  to  which  they 

of  a  burglar  may  make  him  less  happy  than  before,  but  his  intended  vic- 
tims are  saved  pain. 


160  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

owe  their  origin  are  generally  the  result  of  self-discipline 
and  of  self-sacrifice,  they  have  to  be  worked  out  by  every 
man  for  himself ;  and,  thus  begun  by  each  anew,  they  de- 
rive little  benefit  from  the  maxims  of  preceding  experience, 
nor  can  they  well  be  stored  up  for  the  use  of  future  mor- 
alists. .  .  .  Indeed,  if  we  examine  the  effects  of  the  most 
active  philanthropy,  and  of  the  largest  and  most  disinter- 
ested kindness,  we  shall  find  that  those  effects  are,  com- 
paratively speaking,  short-lived ;  that  there  is  only  a  small 
number  of  individuals  that  they  come  in  contact  with  and 
benefit ;  that  they  rarely  survive  the  generation  which 
witnessed  their  commencement ;  and  that,  when  they  take 
the  more  durable  form  of  founding  great  public  charities, 
such  institutions  invariably  fall,  first  into  abuse,  then  into 
decay,  and  after  a  time  are  either  destroyed  or  perverted 
from  their  original  intention,  mocking  the  effort  by  which 
it  is  vainly  attempted  to  perpetuate  the  memory  even  of 
the  purest  and  most  energetic  benevolence." 

A  moral  maxim  unknown,  therefore,  can  have  no  effect. 
No  moral  maxims  have  much  effect  on  individuals,  because 
to  work  them  out  requires  an  individual  effort^  which  is 
little  capable  of  being  lightened  by  the  experience  of 
others,  and  is  comparatively  incapable  of  transmission. 
The  only  remaining  argument  is  that  symbolized  by  our 
potato.  This  will  only  nourish  the  man  who  has  it ;  or,  in 
other  words,  only  the  man  who  knows  a  moral  truth  can 
be  benefited  by  it.  To  get  a  more  general  benefit  from 
the  discovery  of  the  potato  as  a  food,  it  must  be  widely 
grown ;  and  so,  to  get  an  increasing  effect  from  the  same 
moral  truth,  it  must  be  more  widely  diffused.  It  may  be 
urged  that,  though  moral  truths  are  unprogressive,  their 


CHANGES  WORKED  BY  CHRISTIANITY.          161 

effects  may  be  increasing.  A  greater  proportion  of  people 
may  now  be  made  acquainted  with  them  than  formerly, 
and  hence  a  greater  proportion  may  live  fnorally,  and 
hence,  again,  civilization  may  be  advanced.  This  may  be 
true,  only  the  increased  diffusion  of  moral  truths  is  also 
due  to  the  advance  of  knowledge,  which  has  improved  the 
means  of  intercommunication  of  thought  by  steam  and  by 
printing.  Then,  it  may  be  urged,  there  is  really  no  sepa- 
rate advance,  but  a  reciprocal  progress ;  knowledge  ad- 
vancing morality,  morality  advancing  civilization.  This  is 
very  frequently  urged ;  but,  if  moral  progress  is  not  sub- 
ordinate to  intellectual  progress,  and  entirely  dependent  on 
it,  then  it  must  be  shown  that  the  diffusion  of  moral  truths 
among  people  who  had  them  not  before  has  civilized  them. 
Have  they  done  so?  It  is  admitted  by  the  missionaries 
themselves  that  the  attempt  to  convert  without  first  intro- 
ducing some  little  intellectual  improvement  is  useless. 
"When  Christianity  was  introduced,  so  far  .from  civilizing 
the  people,  it  was  itself  dragged  down  to  their  own  level. 
Its  only  effect  was  to  satisfy  the  aspirations  of  those  already 
cultivated  enough  to  receive  it ;  for  the  mass  it  was  a  mere 
substitution  of  names.  Yenus  and  Ashtaroth  became  the 
Virgin  Mary ;  Apollo  and  Horus  became  Christ ;  Jupiter 
and  Osiris,  God.  The  mystic  trinity  of  the  Assyrians  and 
Egyptians  was  introduced  into  Christianity,  while  the 
horde  of  lesser  gods,  displaced  by  the  saints,  were  rele- 
gated in  the  minds  of  the  ignorant  multitude  to  the  depths 
of  hell. 

That  this  is  the  invariable  effect  of  the  introduction  of 
any  system  of  morals  superior  to  the  state  of  knowledge 

of  the  people  on  whom  it  is  imposed,  we  may  prove  by  a 
11 


162  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

cursory  review  of  the  fate  of  other  great  systems  of  re- 
ligion. Look  at  India.  There  is  a  country  which  has  had 
great  religious  teachers,  who  inculcated  most  of  the  moral 
truths  which  we  are  accustomed  to  think  were  first  intro- 
duced by  Christianity.  Indeed,  one  of  them  taught  a  re- 
ligion which  so  singularly  resembles  Christianity  as  to 
afford  an  instructing  example  of  the  constant  effect  of  the 
same  causes.  Buddhism  was  a  religion  for  the  poor  and 
degraded :  "  My  law  is  a  law  of  grace  for  all";  "  My  doc- 
trine is  like  the  sky ;  there  is  room  for  all  without  excep- 
tion." There  are  reverence  for  parents,  forgiving  of  ene- 
mies, absence  of  revenge,  and  a  universal  charity,  which 
extends  not  only  to  all  mankind  but  to  the  whole  animal 
kind  as  well.  The  object  was,  indeed,  a  selfish  one,  the 
salvation  of  the  individual  from  further  penance  on  earth ; 
but  this  object  is  one  common  to  all  religions,  and  among 
the  early  Christians  assumed  a  form  which  well-nigh  ex- 
tinguished the  virtue  of  charity  altogether.14  This  religion 
was  imposed  upon  a  people  in  much  the  same  state  of 
civilization  as  the  early  Christians  were,  and  with  a  result 
that  was  strikingly  similar.  Neither  in  Christianity  nor 
in  Buddhism  was  there  any  authorization  of  a  priesthood, 
and,  indeed,  both  the  New  Testament  and  Buddha  speak 
against  such  institutions.  But  now,  in  both  religions, 
every  temple  is  full  of  graven  images ;  there  is  a  regular 
hierarchy,  culminating  in  a  Pope,  as  well  as  all  the  abuses 
of  asceticism  in  monasteries  and  nunneries. 

This  parallel,  indeed,  only  existed  up  to  the  Kef  orma- 
tion,  in  Europe  taken  as  a  whole,  though  it  still  exists  in 

14  I  allude  to  the  inhuman  treatment  by  some  of  the  most  celebrated 
saints  of  their  nearest  relatives. 


MORAL  TRUTHS  STATIONARY.  163 

those  parts,  such  as  Russia  and  certain  South  European 
countries,  where  the  people  remain  almost  untouched  by 
the  progress  of  knowledge.  "Why  does  this  parallel  no 
longer  hold  good  ?  "Wherein  has  the  development  of  East- 
ern Asia  and  Western  Europe  differed?  It  can  surely 
not  be  asserted  that  a  greater  proportion  of  Buddhists 
than  of  Christians  are  ignorant  of  moral  truths.  If  any- 
thing, the  fact  is  the  other  way.  But,  owing  to  causes 
which  have  already  been  described,  knowledge  has  stead- 
ily advanced  in  Europe,  while  in  Asia  it  has  remained 
comparatively  stationary. 

Let  us  turn  from  the  comparative  effects  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  moral  and  intellectual  truths  upon  the  practice 
of  religions,  to  mark  what  each  has  done  for  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  great  scourges  of  humanity.  "We  see,  in  the 
past,  a  succession  of  men — most  conscientious,  upright,  and 
zealous,  fully  acquainted  with  all  the  great  maxims  of 
morality — hang,  burn,  torture,  and  destroy  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  their  fellow  creatures,  merely  because  they 
and  their  victims  were  not  agreed  as  to  the  exact  constitu- 
tion of  the  Holy  Trinity.  In  the  present  age  we  see  men, 
their  equals  in  every  respect,  equally  earnest  and  upright 
and  intelligent,  condemn  their  predecessors'  actions  as 
barbarous  and  wicked,  and  inconsistent  with  morality. 
"What  is  the  cause  of  this  difference?  The  advance  of 
moral  and  intellectual  truth?  This  can  not  be,  for  the 
religious  persecutors  well  knew  that  they  should  do  good 
to  them  that  hate  them,  and  love  their  enemies  as  them- 
selves. Nor  has  anything  been  added  to  moral  truth  since 
their  time.  "We  are  then  forced  to  adopt  the  view  that 
this  progress  is  caused  by  the  progress  of  knowledge,  and 


164  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

not  by  a  progress  of  moral  knowledge.  In  this  particular 
case,  indeed,  we  may  show  directly  that  intolerance  is  re- 
moved by  knowledge.  Who  has  not  been  moved  in  his 
childhood  with  the  story  of  the  Crucifixion  ?  "Who  has  not 
hoped  against  knowledge  in  the  choice  of  the  people  be- 
fore Pilate  ?  and  whose  heart  has  not  sunk  before  the  cry, 
"  Give  us  Barabbas,"  and  risen  in  indignation  against  the 
mob  and  them  that  wrought  this  wrong,  even  to  a  desire 
of  revenge,  and  a  feeling  that  every  Jew  should  be  tor- 
tured to  death  to  make  amends?  Again,  if  a  man  is 
firmly  convinced  that  only  those  who  think  as  he  does 
will  be  saved  from  an  eternal  torture,  will  he  not  be  right, 
in  his  own  light,  in  attempting  to  scotch  the  pestiferous 
germs  of  heresy,  and  thus  save  the  many  from  torture  by 
the  torture  of  a  few  ?  Can  any  moral  knowledge  what- 
ever eradicate  such  a  belief  ?  No,  assuredly  not.  The 
advance  of  knowledge  alone,  which  shows  a  man  he  is  not 
infallible,  that  there  have  been  other  views  in  the  world 
besides  his  own,  and  shakes  the  faith  in  his  heart  of  hearts 
that  the  dogmas  of  religion  are  all  necessary  and  authen- 
ticated truths — this  alone  can  work  an  alteration  in  a  good 
man,  while  a  bad  is  too  indifferent  either  to  persecute  or 
to  show  charity. 

And  this  is  the  reason  why  bad  men  have  often  made 
the  best  rulers,  and  good  men  have  frequently,  indeed 
generally,  done  harm  in  proportion  to  their  power.  For 
bad  men,  being  solely  devoted  to  their  own  pleasure,  care 
nothing  for  the  salvation  of  others,  or  to  constrain  men  to 
think  as  they  do.  For  a  selfish  gratification  they  will  cur- 
tail the  power  of  their  successors  and  thus  increase  the 
liberties  of  the  people.  In  this  way  the  best  Roman 


THE  MOVING  FOKCE.  165 

emperors  were  the  worst  persecutors ;  our  most  immoral 
kings  were  those  under  whom  the  liberties  of  England 
most  increased :  and  the  same  phenomena  are  everywhere 
to  be  seen. 

For  the  aggregate,  then,  moral  knowledge  is  of  hardly 
any  importance  as  compared  with  intellectual.  For  the 
individual  it  is  far  more  important  than  intellectual  knowl- 
edge. The  foundation  of  morality  is  the  will  to  do  good ; 
and  this  is  so  necessary  a  feeling  to  the  well-being  of  indi- 
viduals, that  the  man  who  is  without  it  is  without  half  the 
pleasure  of  life.  It  is  dangerous,  however,  in  direct  pro- 
portion to  the  power  and  ignorance  of  the  person  who 
practices  it ;  because  the  will  to  do  good  without  a  knowl- 
of  the  way  to  do  so  must  necessarily  be  harmful.  But  the 
science  of  morality  is  so  little  understood  that  it  may  be 
taken  as  an  axiom  that  the  best  men  do  the  most  harm. 
Their  hearts  are  tender,  and  they  can  not  resist  the  ap- 
peals of  the  needy;  they  are  unwilling  to  suspect  ill  of 
any  one,  and  become  the  tools  of  knaves;  they  will  not 
take  advantage  of  their  opportunity  to  get  rid  of  a  crim- 
inal, and  the  community  suffer  in  consequence. 

While,  therefore,  moral  laws  are  naught  but  disturbing 
factors  in  the  steady  march  of  civilization,  the  progress  of 
intellectual  knowledge  is  the  great  moving  force — the  gen- 
eral of  the  army  under  whose  orders  the  inferior  leader, 
moral  law,  performs  his  evolutions.  From  this  it  follows 
that,  if  the  analysis  thus  far  is  true,  it  only  remains  to 
investigate  the  laws  of  intellectual  progress  to  arrive  at  a 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  civilization,  which  are  ultimate 
laws  for  us. 

Before  attempting  to  do  so,  however,  it  will  be  well  to 


166  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

I/consider  the  claims  of  religion,  literature,  and  govern- 
]  ment  to  be  the  chief  factors  in  the  march  of  civilization, 
y  Such  an  examination  were  indeed  unnecessary,  had  not  so 
much  stress  been  laid  upon  these  as  factors  by  former 
writers  on  human  progress ;  for  it  follows  as  a  necessary 
corollary,  from  what  has  been  said  on  the  subjection  of 
moral  practice  to  intellectual  knowledge,  that  the  others 
are  subjected  in  the  same  way.  If  the  morality  of  a  given 
age  is  determined  by  its  knowledge,  we  can  hardly  say 
that  religion  is  independent.  Literature  must  by  its  con- 
stitution be  dependent ;  and  legislators  can,  no  more  than 
other  people,  be  far  in  advance  of  the  age  in  which  they 
live.  If,  for  instance,  a  man  appears  who  propounds  a 
religion  far  in  advance  of  the  present  state  of  the  people, 
it  will  either  be  dragged  down  to  their  own  level  or  neg- 
lected until  such  time  as  the  people  have  advanced  to  it. 
The  Jews  had  a  religion  in  advance  of  their  civilization, 
and  they  were  practically  idolaters.  The  same  happened 
on  the  introduction  of  the  Christian  religion,  the  religions 
of  Buddha  and  of  Mohammed.  In  every  case  the  reli- 
gion was  corrupted  until  the  people  were  civilized  enough 
to  receive  it.  In  the  same  way,  when  a  nation  grows  too 
civilized  for  the  religion  it  holds,  like  the  French,  it  is 
quietly  neglected. 

It  is  the  same  with  literature.  During  the  earlier 
middle  ages  Latin  was  a  living  language ;  but  the  people 
who  might  have  read  the  best  authors  of  antiquity  pre- 
ferred the  legends  and  fables  which  satisfied  their  grade 
of  civilization,  and  raised  a  class  of  literature  which  rather 
retarded  than  advanced  their  progress.  Here  was  a  litera- 
ture above  them,  and  it  could  not  touch  them;  neither 


LEGISLATORS  NOT  LEADERS.  167 

could  Luther  touch  those  who  were  unprepared.  The  ex- 
ponent of  the  stage  of  thought  of  one  part  of  Europe,  he 
was  heard  and  followed  there  ;  while  for  the,rest  his  voice 
was  as  one  crying  in  the  wilderness.  For  the  same  reason 
the  Greeks  failed  to  retain  that  civilization  which  at  one 
time  they  had  acquired,  because  their  first  men  spoke  to 
each  other  and  not  to  the  people.  The  horses  went  on 
without  the  carriage.  It  was  the  same  with  the  philoso- 
phers of  Germany,  who  wrote  in  a  style  far  above  the 
heads  of  the  people,  in  a  language  which  only  those  who 
had  made  a  special  study  of  it  could  understand  ;  with  the 
result  that  they  advanced,  but  the  people  did  not  follow. 

Nor  can  a  "  wise  law  "  by  a  "  far-seeing  legislator  "  in 
any  way  hasten  the  march  of  civilization.  In  the  first 
place,  no  legislator  ever  invented  a  law  that  he  has  enact- 
ed and  that  has  not  soon  after  been  repealed.  In  the 
quality  of  a  thinker  he  may  certainly  see  what  should  be 
done,  but  he  can  not  do  it  until  he  has  persuaded  the 
people  also  that  it  is  desirable.  If  we  examine  those 
enactments  which  are  said  to  have  benefited  the  people, 
it  will  invariably  be  found  that  the  people  demanded  them 
first,  and  the  laws  were  made  afterward.  So  far  from  the 
legislators  being  the  leaders  of  civilization,  they  are  as  a 
rule  behind  the  civilization  of  their  age ;  because,  being 
accustomed  to  look  at  questions  from  their  practical  side, 
they  are  in  most  cases  unable  to  look  at  them  from  a 
speculative  point  of  view  at  all.  And  this  is  borne  out 
by  their  private  correspondence,  in  which  they  express 
their  fears  of  the  result  of  those  very  measures  which  the 
pressure  of  outside  opinion  obliges  them  to  advocate  in 
public.  But  the  legislator  is  best  judged  of  where  he  is 


168  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

least  dependent  on  the  demands  of  the  people.  Here  if 
anywhere  he  should  aid  their  civilization ;  and  what  has 
he  done  ?  Crippled  trade,  made  laws  against  usury,  med- 
dled with  every  step  of  the  individual,  and  tied  his  tongue ; 
these  are  the  benefits  for  which  we  are  to  be  grateful—- 
and again  be  grateful  for  their  abolition.  "  To  maintain 
order,  to  prevent  the  strong  from  oppressing  the  weak, 
and  to  adopt  certain  precautions  respecting  the  public 
health,  are  the  only  services  which  any  government  can 
render  to  the  interests  of  civilization.  That  these  are  ser- 
vices of  immense  value  no  one  will  deny ;  but  it  can  not 
be  said  that  by  them  civilization  is  advanced  or  the  prog- 
ress of  man  accelerated.  All  that  is  done  is  to  afford  the 
opportunity  of  progress ;  the  progress  itself  must  depend 
on  other  matters." 

"  By  applying  to  the  history  of  man  those  methods  of 
investigation  which  have  been  found  successful  in  other 
branches  of  knowledge,  and  by  rejecting  all  preconceived 
notions  which  would  not  bear  the  test  of  those  methods, 
we  have  arrived  at  certain  results,  the  heads  of  which  it 
may  now  be  convenient  to  recapitulate.  We  have  seen 
that  our  actions,  being  solely  the  result  of  internal  and 
external  agencies,  must  be  explicable  by  the  laws  of  those 
agencies ;  that  is  to  say,  by  mental  laws  and  by  physical  laws. 
"We  have  also  seen  that  mental  laws  are,  in  Europe,  more 
powerful  than  physical  laws,  and  that,  in  the  progress  of 
civilization,  their  superiority  is  constantly  increasing,  be- 
cause advancing  knowledge  multiplies  the  resources  of 
the  mind,  but  leaves  the  old  resources  of  nature  stationary. 
On  this  account  we  have  treated  the  mental  laws  as  being 
the  great  regulators  of  progress ;  and  we  have  looked  at 


GENERALIZATION'S  UNRELIABLE.  169 

the  physical  laws  as  occupying  a  subordinate  place,  and  as 
merely  displaying  themselves  in  occasional,  disturbances, 
the  force  and  frequency  of  which  have  been  long  declin- 
ing, and  are  now,  on  a  large  average,  almost  inoperative. 
Having,  by  this  means,  resolved  the  study  of  what  may 
be  called  the  dynamics  of  society  into  the  study  of  the 
laws  of  the  mind,  we  have  subjected  this  last  to  a  similar 
analysis,  and  we  have  found  that  they  consist  of  two  parts, 
namely,  moral  laws  and  intellectual  laws.  By  comparing 
these  two  parts,  we  have  clearly  ascertained  the  vast  su- 
mriority  of  the  intellectual  laws ;  and  we  have  seen  that, 
as  the  progress  of  civilization  is  marked  by  the  triumph  of 
the  mental  laws  over  the  physical,  just  so  is  it  marked  by 
the  triumph  of  intellectual  laws  over  the  moral  ones.  .  .  . 
From  all  this  it  evidently  follows  that,  if  we  wish  to  as- 
certain the  conditions  which  regulate  the  progress  of  mod- 
ern civilization,  we  must  seek  them  in  the  history  of  the 
amount  and  diffusion  of  intellectual  knowledge;  and  we 
must  consider  physical  phenomena  and  moral  principles 
as  causing,  no  doubt,  great  aberrations  in  short  periods,  but 
in  long  periods  correcting  and  balancing  themselves,  and 
thus  leaving  the  intellectual  laws  to  act  uncontrolled  by 
these  inferior  and  subordinate  agents." 

"  The  totality  of  human  actions  being  thus,  from  the 
highest  point  of  view,  governed  by  the  totality  of  human 
knowledge,  it  might  seem  a  simple  matter  to  collect  the 
evidence  of  the  knowledge,  and,  by  subjecting  it  to  succes- 
sive generalizations,  ascertain  the  whole  of  the  laws  which 
regulate  the  progress  of  civilization."  Since,  however,  so- 
called  historians  have  not  hitherto  recognized  this  fact, 
and,  instead  of  giving  information  respecting  the  progress 


170  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

of  knowledge,  have  almost  confined  themselves  to  petty  bio- 
graphical details,  there  is  nothing  ready  to  the  historian's 
hands.  Several  generations  of  workers  are  requisite  to  col- 
lect such  evidence  as  is  still  to  be  had,  for  no  single  man  is 
equal  to  such  a  task ;  and  hence  Buckle  had  to  abandon 
his  original  plan  of  writing  the  history  of  civilization,  and 
confine  himself  to  the  history  of  civilization  in  England. 

England  he  chooses  to  illustrate  the  laws  of  civiliza- 
tion, not  on  account  of  its  being  the  most  civilized  coun- 
try, though  that  may  be  the  case,  but  because  it  is  the 
country  which  has  developed  with  least  interference  f 
outside.  In  every  science  laws  are  most  successfully  dis- 
covered by  means  of  experiments ;  and  experiment  means 
simply  isolation  of  phenomena,  or  freedom  from  complica- 
tions whereby  the  phenomena  are  obscured.  That  coun- 
try which  has  worked  out  its  civilization  most  freely  by 
itself,  which  had  most  escaped  foreign  influence,  and  had 
been  least  interfered  with  by  the  personal  peculiarities  of 
its  rulers,  would  most  fulfill  the  conditions  of  an  experi- 
ment. England,  during  the  last  three  centuries  at  least, 
answers  this  requirement  better  than  any  other  country, 
and  hence  England  is  chosen  as  the  best  representative 
obtainable  of  the  development  of  civilization :  the  country 
whose  history  Buckle  chooses  particularly  to  study  in  order 
that  he  may  discover,  from  successive  generalizations  on 
the  progress  of  knowledge  there,  the  laws  which  govern 
the  general  progress  of  knowledge,  and  hence  the  laws 
which  govern  the  progress  of  civilization  of  mankind. 

But,  in  limiting  his  sources  of  investigation,  his  deduc- 
tions must,  to  a  proportionate  extent,  be  uncertain,  be- 
cause it  may  be  that  an  inferior  law  is  more  prominent  in 


AN  ILLUSTRATION.  171 

that  one  country  than  it  would  appear  on  a  survey  of  the 
whole  globe.  As  an  illustration,  let  us  say  that  in  Han- 
over the  sexes  are  born  as  1  to  1*07 ;  we  should  conclude, 
therefore,  that  it  was  the  common  case  in  all  Europe 
that  children  are  born,  1  girl  to  every  TOT  boys,  unless 
we  extended  our  observations  to  other  countries,  and  saw 
that  there  male  births  were  in  excess.  From  this  we  should 
see  that  there  was  a  superior  law  governing  the  proportion 
of  the  sexes,  which  we  should  never  detect  if  we  confined 
our  observations  to  Hanover,  which  law  seems,  as  far  as 
we  are  yet  able  to  say,  to  be  that  the  sex  of  a  child  de- 
pends on  the  relative  vigor  of  the  parents  taken  in  its  lar- 
gest sense,  and  including  the  inherited  tendency  to  pro- 
duce a  particular  sex,  which  is  itself  possibly  a  form  of 
vigor,  or  its  absence.  This  law  would,  therefore,  in  its  turn 
be  governed  by  that  which  determines  the  relative  age  at 
which  the  two  sexes  marry ;  which  is,  in  the  main,  the 
general  prosperity  of  the  country.  Thus,  since  women  do 
not  earn  their  own  living  as  a  rule,  the,  age  at  which  they 
marry  is  determined  chiefly  by  the  age  at  which  their 
beauty  is  most  captivating  to  the  opposite  sex,  which  is 
much  the  same  for  all  Europe.  The  age  at  which  the 
bread-winners  marry  depends  upon  the  prosperity  of  the 
country :  the  greater  the  prosperity,  the  earlier  the  men 
marry.  If  all  this  be  true,  we  should  say,  then,  that  the 
equality  of  the  sexes  born  in  Hanover  showed  that  most 
people  had  insufficient  to  live  upon — a  law  at  which  we 
could  not  have  arrived  had  our  statistical  information  been 
restricted  to  Hanover  alone." 

15 1  would  guard  here  against  the  supposition  that  I  advance  the  above 
as  a  scientific  truth.     It  is  merely  intended  for  an  illustration.    Though  not 


172  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

There  are  certain  intellectual  peculiarities,  again,  which 
have  had  very  important  effects  on  civilization,  considered 
as  a  whole,  but  which  were  comparatively  rare  in  England. 
The  results  of  these  peculiarities  must,  therefore,  be  stud- 
ied in  the  history  of  those  countries  where  they  were  most 
marked  and  strongly  developed ;  just  as  an  anatomist  who 
wishes  to  study  certain  obscure  muscles  in  the  human  back 
dissects  the  tiger  or  porpoise,  in  which  they  are  more  fully 
developed.  Until  a  secure  groundwork  of  the  compara- 
tive effects  of  the  different  forms  of  thought  is  obtained, 
it  is  difficult  to  form  a  conclusion  as  to  which  is  the  most 
important,  which  advances  civilization,  or  which  is  mere 
perturbation.  The  remaining  part  of  the  introduction  was 
therefore  designed  in  some  measure  to  fill  the  void  caused 
by  the  impossibility  .of  writing  a  history  of  general  civili- 
zation ;  that  is,  England  was  chosen  as  the  country  whose 
civilization  has  followed  a  course  more  orderly  and  less 
disturbed  than  any  other,  and  therefore  the  laws  of  normal 
development  could  best  be  traced ;  while,  when  it  is  neces- 
sary to  investigate  the  effects  of  social  developments  which 
have  been  injurious  to  progress,  their  effects  will  be  best 
seen  where  they  have  been  strongest. 

Thus,  in  England,  the  effect  of  the  spirit  of  protection, 
or  interference  with  individual  freedom  of  thought  and 
action,  has  been  felt,  but  in  so  slight  a  degree  that  it  is 
difficult  to  estimate  its  true  effect  until  we  turn  to  the  his- 
tory of  some  country  where  it  has  existed  in  a  much  greater 
degree.  This  is  not  difficult,  because  France,  Germany, 

improbable  in  itself,  it  must  certainly  be  more  complicated,  since  what  one 
country,  such  as  Ireland,  considers  living  in  comfort,  another,  such  as 
France,  would  by  no  means  consider  so. 


CONTRASTS  BETWEEN  CIVILIZATIONS.  173 

Spain,  Italy,  and  Russia  have  been  strongly  protective. 
If,  however,  we  wish  to  estimate  the  effect  of  a  disturbing 
cause  in  other  scientific  investigations,  wet- compare  two 
things  identical  in  all  respects  but  in  that  disturbing  cause 
the  effects  of  which  we  want  to  investigate,  and  by  these 
means  we  isolate  it.  To  investigate  the  effect  of  the  shape 
of  the  head  of  a  projectile  on  its  speed  we  fire  projectiles 
with  variously  shaped  heads,  with  the  same  charge  of  pow- 
der, on  the  same  day,  from  the  same  gun,  on  the  same 
range ;  and  know  that  any  difference  shown  is  due  to  no- 
thing but  the  shape  of  the  projectile's  head  and  resistance 
it  affords  to  the  air.  "We  must,  therefore,  choose  a  country 
for  comparison  with  England  as  similar  as  possible  in  all 
other  respects  but  that  of  protection.  Germany  and  Italy 
have  been  split  up  into  small  states.  Germany  and  Russia 
have  been  long  behindhand  in  civilization.  Spain  has 
been,  and  is,  exceedingly  loyal  and  superstitious.  All  but 
France  have  been  exceedingly  backward  in  the  spread  of 
knowledge.  In  short,  without  mentioning  other  reasons, 
France  is  the  country  whose  circumstances  and  state  have 
been  most  similar  to  those  of  England,  with  the  one  ex- 
ception that  the  spirit  of  protection  has  been  strongly 
prevalent  in  the  one  country  and  not  in  the  other.  For 
this  reason  France  and  England  are  historically  compared, 
in  order  to  bring  out  clearly  the  effects  of  this  interference 
with  progress  and  estimate  its  value — in  order  that  its  per- 
turbations may  be  recognized  where  present  in  the  history 
of  England.  "  But  the  French,  as  a  people,  have,  since 
the  beginning  or  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  been 
remarkably  free  from  superstition ;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  efforts  of  their  government,  they  are  very  adverse  to 


174  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

ecclesiastical  power;  so  that,  although  their  history  dis- 
plays the  protective  principle  in  its  political  form,  it  sup- 
plies little  evidence  respecting  its  religious  form ;  while,  in 
our  own  country,  the  evidence  is  also  scanty."  Hence  it 
was  necessary  "  to  give  a  view  of  Spanish  history,  because 
in  it  we  may  trace  the  full  results  of  that  protection  against 
error  which  the  spiritual  classes  are  always  eager  to  afford. 
In  Spain  the  Church  has,  from  a  very  early  period,  pos- 
sessed more  authority,  and  the  clergy  have  been  more  in- 
fluential, both  with  the  people  and  the  government,  than 
in  any  other  country " ;  it  is  "  therefore  convenient  to 
study  in  Spain  the  law  of  ecclesiastical  development,  and 
the  manner  in  which  the  development  affects  the  national 
interests."  Another  circumstance  which  operates  on  the 
intellectual  progress  of  a  nation  is  the  method  of  investi- 
gation which  its  ablest  men  habitually  employ.  This 
method  can  only  be  one  of  two  kinds :  it  must  be  either 
inductive  or  deductive.  Each  of  these  belongs  to  a  differ- 
ent form  of  civilization,  and  is  always  accompanied  by  a 
different  style  of  thought,  particularly  in  regard  to  religion 
and  science.  These  differences  are  of  such  immense  im- 
portance that,  until  their  laws  are  known,  we  can  not  be 
said  to  understand  the  real  history  of  past  events.  Now 
the  two  extremes  of  difference  are,  undoubtedly,  Germany 
and  the  United  States ;  the  Germans  being  preeminently 
deductive,  the  Americans  inductive.  But  Germany  and 
America  are  in  so  many  other  respects  diametrically  op- 
posed to  each  other,  that  "  it  is  expedient  to  study  the 
operations  of  the  deductive  and  inductive  spirit  in  coun- 
tries between  which  a  closer  analogy  exists.  .  .  .  Such  an 
opportunity  occurs  in  the  history  of  Scotland,  as  compared 


METHODS  OF  INVESTIGATION.  175 

with  that  of  England.  Here  we  have  two  countries  bor- 
dering on  each  other,  speaking  the  same  language,  reading 
the  same  literature,  and  knit  together  by  the  same  inter- 
ests. And  yet  it  is  a  truth  .  .  .  that  until  the  last  thirty  or 
forty  years  the  Scotch  intellect  has  been  even  more  entirely 
deductive  than  the  English  intellect  has  been  inductive." 
Again,  in  Germany,  for  instance,  "the  accumulation  of 
knowledge  has  been  far  more  rapid  than  in  England ; 
the  laws  of  the  accumulation  of  knowledge  may  on  that 
account  be  most  conveniently  studied  in  German  history, 
and  then  applied  deductively  to  the  history  of  England. 
In  the  same  way,  the  Americans  have  diffused  their  knowl- 
edge much  more  completely  than  we  have  done."  In  that 
country,  therefore,  the  laws  of  diffusion  may  most  con- 
veniently be  studied,  and  thence  applied  to  the  phenomena 
of  English  civilization. 

In  the  course  of  these  historical  comparisons  Buckle 
did  not  omit  to  point  out  the  effects  in  each  country  of 
the  protective  spirit,  the  method  of  scientific  investigation, 
the  credulous  habit  of  thought,  and  how  all  these  acted 
and  reacted  on  each  other.  The  causes  of  the  different 
directions  thus  pursued  by  these  countries  having  been 
pointed  out,  he  would  close  the  "Introduction"  with  a 
generalization  of  the  causes  themselves ;  "  and,  having 
thus  referred  them  to  certain  principles  common  to  all, 
we  shall  be  possessed  of  what  may  be  called  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  European  thought,  the  divergence  of  the 
different  countries  being  regulated  either  by  the  direction 
those  laws  take,  or  else  by  their  comparative  energy." 
Their  demonstration  in  the  two  volumes  only  was  neces- 
sarily incomplete,  and  Buckle  therefore  warns  his  reader 


176  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

"to  suspend  his  final  judgment  until  the  close"  of  the 
"  Introduction,"  when  the  "  subject  in  all  its  bearings  " 
would  be  laid  before  him./ 

In  the  "  Introduction  "  Buckle's  method  was  on  the 
whole  inductive ;  that  is,  he  studied  the  effects  in  order  to 
learn  the  causes.  And  though  he  altered  his  method  in 
parts  of  his  historical  comparisons  to  confirm  the  results 
he  had  already  inductively  obtained,  yet  in  the  main  the 
"  Introduction  "  was  inductive.  The  body  of  the  work 
was,  on  the  other  hand,  to  have  been  deductive ;  that  is, 
having  discovered  inductively  the  fundamental  laws  of 
human  progress,  he  would  have  applied  them  to  English 
history,  which  would  have  served  as  a  series  of  illustra- 
tions of  the  truth  of  those  laws  which  he  had  already  dis- 
covered. But  here  again  he  would  not  have  confined 
himself  strictly  to  the  one  method,  and  would  inductively 
have  established  those  minor  laws  which  now  appear  to  us 
as  aberrations  of  the  larger  or  fundamental  ones.  "With 
this  view  he  proposed,  for  the  sake  of  clearness,  to  divide 
what  he  called  the  special  history  of  society  into  certain 
classes,  not  according  to  any  arbitrary  standard,  but  accord- 
ing to  the  actual  condition  of  things — as,  for  instance, 
clergy,  aristocracy,  agriculturists,  manufacturers,  and  the 
like.  This  division  he  would  only  adopt  as  a  scientific 
artifice,  and  with  the  view  of  showing  that  the  principles 
which  he  had  arrived  at  from  a  general  observation  of 
history  were  applicable  to  all  the  different  classes  of  a 
special  period.  If  such  a  proof  could  be  made  out,  it  was 
evident  that  such  a  series  of  parallel  reasonings  would  be 
more  confirmatory  of  the  original  principle  than  the  ordi- 
nary method  of  investigation.  If,  for  instance,  he  could 


DIVISIONS  OF  SOCIETY.  177 

show  that  a  certain  law  which  he  had  arrived  at  by  a  gen- 
eral consideration  of  history  is  in  any  large  period  sepa- 
rately applicable  to  all  the  great  classes  of  society,  he 
would  have  made  out  a  case  very  analogous  to  that  in 
which  the  general  laws  of  natural  philosophy  are  applied 
to  mechanics,  hydrostatics,  acoustics,  and  the  like.  This  is 
also  the  way  in  which  general  physiological  principles  col- 
lected from  the  whole  of  organic  nature  have  been  applied 
to  man,  and  the  nutrition  of  plants  throws  light  on  the 
functions  of  human  nutrition.  At  the  same  time,  and  by 
way  of  further  precaution,  he  would,  while  investigating 
periods  of  special  history,  take  occasion,  when  very  impor- 
tant principles  were  at  stake,  to  recur  to  general  history, 
and  not  hesitate  to  collect  evidence  from  other  countries, 
in  order  to  prove  that  it  holds  good  under  the  most  differ- 
ent conditions.  If  this  should  be  accomplished  with  any 
degree  of  success,  not  only  would  he  have  pointed  out 
some  of  the  great  laws  which  regulate  the  progress  of 
nations,  but  he  hoped  that,  by  a  reflex  process,  some  light 
would  be  thrown  upon  the  general  constitution  of  the 
human  mind,  and  that  some  contribution  would  have  been 
made  toward  the  formation  of  a  basis  on  which  metaphysi- 
cal science  could  be  hereafter  erected. 

But  it  is  evident  that,  looking  upon  society  as  a  whole, 
it  admits  of  two  sorts  of  divisions :  a  division  into  classes, 
and  a  division  into  interests.  The  nature  of  the  first  set  of 
divisions  is  very  obvious,  because  it  is  constantly  passing 
before  our  eye.  But  the  nature  of  the  division  into  inter- 
ests is  much  more  obscure ;  and  this  seems  to  arise  partly 
from  the  circumstance  that  men  love  their  interest  much 
more  than  they  love  the  class  to  which  they  belong,  and 
12 


178  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

partly  because,  to  understand  the  different  interests,  it  is 
necessary  to  have  a  much  more  comprehensive  knowledge 
than  is  required  in  understanding  the  feelings  of  the  dif- 
ferent classes  by  which  those  interests  are  put  in  move- 
ment. These  great  interests  are,  in  every  civilized  society, 
six  in  number,  which  will,  from  selfish  motives,  be  always 
especially  protected  by  certain  classes.  These  are  religion, 
science,  literature,  wealth,  liberty,  and  the  great  principle 
of  order,  or  that  conserving  impulse  which  is  exceedingly 
dangerous  in  the  contracted  minds  of  ordinary  politicians, 
because  it  makes  them  oppose  themselves  to  the  healthy 
development  of  society,  but  which,  notwithstanding,  has 
more  than  once  saved  this  country,  and  is  the  only  protec- 
tion we  possess  against  the  anarchical  license  into  which, 
unhappily,  liberty  is  so  prone  to  run.  It  is  evident  that 
the  most  perfect  society  is  that  in  which  each  of  these 
great  interests  is  developed  to  the  highest  possible  pitch 
that  is  compatible  with  the  free  existence  of  the  others. 

How  he  would  have  executed  this  project  we  have  an 
example  in  the  "  Fragment  on  Elizabeth,"  whose  reign 
would  most  probably  have  formed  one  of  those  epochs 
around  which  he  proposed  to  group  the  history  of  the 
various  classes  and  interests  of  the  period,  and  show  how 
everything  fitted  in  with  the  laws  of  history  already  enun- 
ciated. The  Great  Rebellion  would  probably  have  formed 
another.  These  periods  again  would  have  been  connected 
by  a  short  summary  of  the  last  group,  and  short  anticipa- 
tion of  the  next,  so  that  each  would  have  formed,  as  it 
were,  a  link,  perfect  in  itself,  in  the  chain  of  the  history  of 
England. 

All  this  would  have  served  as  illustrative  and  confir- 


WHAT  WOULD  HAVE  BEEN  SHOWN.  179 

matory  of  what  he  had  already  advanced  in  the  "  Intro- 
duction." In  that  he  did  not  pretend  to  investigate  ques- 
tions of  practical  utility,  or  to  trace  the  connection  be- 
tween the  discoveries  of  science  and  the  arts  of  life.  In 
the  "  History  "  he  hoped  to  do  this,  and  to  explain  a  num- 
ber of  minute  social  events,  many  of  which  are  regarded 
as  isolated,  if  not  incongruous ;  how  great  events  never 
spring  from  small  causes,  and  everything  is  connected 
with  and  determined  by  its  antecedents.  He  would  have 
worked  out  the  fact  that  the  advance  of  European  civiliza- 
tion is  characterized  by  a  diminishing  influence  of  physi- 
cal and  an  increasing  influence  of  mental  laws,  the  com- 
plete proof  of  which  could  only  be  collected  from  his- 
tory; have  shown  how  every  great  increase  in  the  ac- 
tivity of  the  human  intellect  has  struck  a  blow  at  the 
warlike  spirit ;  and  how  the  yeomanry  class  gradually  de- 
cayed. He  would  have  shown  how  Elizabeth  humbled 
first  the  Catholic  and  then  the  Protestant  clergy;  the 
effects  produced  on  the  whole  structure  of  society  by  the 
sudden  change  which  took  place  in  the  value  of  the  pre- 
cious metals,  and  have  shown  that  the  fall  of  prices  was 
particularly  detrimental  to  those  landlords  whose  lands 
were  permanently  let  at  a  fixed  rent ;  and  hence  how  the 
clergy  were  weakened  through  their  pockets,  tried  to  re- 
coup themselves  by  other  means,  and  so  helped  to  bring 
on  the  Reformation  ;  how  the  growth  of  manufactures,  by 
taking  men  away  from  agriculture,  made  them  see  that 
the  powers  of  nature  were  not  beyond  their  control,  and 
therefore  diminished  superstition ;  and  how  the  Puritans 
were  more  fanatical  than  superstitious.  He  would  have 
traced  the  influence  of  Warburton's  book,  "  The  Alliance 


180  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

between  Church  and  State,"  which  appeared  in  1736,  and 
which  argues  that  the  state  has  nothing  to  do  with  errors 
in  religion,  nor  the  least  right  to  repress  them — "  To  make 
such  a  man  a  bishop  was  a  great  feat  for  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  would  have  been  an  impossible  one  for  the 
seventeenth."  He  would  have  examined  carefully  and  in 
detail  the  inductive  tendency  in  English  thinkers  for  more 
than  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  death  of  Bacon ; 
and  how  only  in  the  nineteenth  century  an  attempt  was 
made  to  return  in  some  degree  to  the  deductive  method ; 
why  England  devoted  herself  to  practical  pursuits  and 
politics,  iDstead  of  to  physical  science  and  metaphysics 
during  seventy  years  after  the  death  of  Newton;  and 
would  have  shown  how  the  opponents  of  Young  were 
able  to  put  down  the  undulatory  theory  of  light  as  a  valu- 
able illustration  of  the  history  and  habits  of  the  English 
mind.  He  would  have  given  an  account  of  the  angry- 
contests  which  arose  between  the  lovers  of  things  past 
and  the  lovers  of  things  future  shown  in  the  hostility  di- 
rected against  the  Royal  Society  as  the  first  institution  in 
which  the  idea  of  progress  was  distinctly  embodied — a 
contest  which  is  among  the  most  instructive  parts  of  our 
history.  The  immense  services  of  Locke  in  England,  in 
deposing  the  mere  classical  scholar  from  his  pedestal  of 
supreme  knowledge,  would  also  have  been  related,  to- 
gether with  the  details  of  such  discoveries  as  were  subser- 
vient to  civilization.  He  would  have  shown  how  the 
advance  and  spread  of  knowledge  stopped  the  political 
retrogression  of  George  III.'s  time;  and  how  lawgivers 
are  never  reformers;  how  the  rise  and  growth  of  clubs 
were  of  immense  importance,  and  played  a  great  part  in 


MOURNFUL  FOREBODINGS.  181 

the  history  of  England  during  the  latter  part  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century;  and  have  collected  the  evidence  of  the 
development  of  the  love  of  traveling,  and  the  influence  of 
the  French  and  English  intellect  on  each  other. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  points  which  he  would  have 
treated  in  the  body  of  the  work,  collected  from  a  few 
stray  remarks  in  what  he  published.  Little  as  they  tell 
us  of  what  he  would  undoubtedly  have  done,  they  are 
nevertheless  valuable  as  giving  some  indication  of  the  way 
he  would  have  written  his  history,  and  his  extraordinary 
breadth  of  view.  At  the  end  he  would  have  again  re- 
turned from  his  restricted  field  of  England,  and,  casting 
his  eyes  over  the  whole  of  Europe,  he  would  have  ex- 
amined the  present  condition  of  the  human  mind,  and 
endeavored  to  estimate  its  future  prospects,  fix  the  basis 
of  our  present  civilization,  and  indicate  its  future  progress. 

It  is  painful  to  be  thus  reminded  of  the  vastness  of  our 
loss  in  the  death  of  a  single  man  far  away  in  Damascus ; 
but  let  us  console  ourselves  in  the  fact  that  nevertheless 
we  have  the  greatest,  by  far  the  greatest,  part  of  what 
it  would  have  been  possible  for  him  to  give  us.  Though 
the  proof  is  not  so  cogent,  though  we  have  not  the  detail 
of  the  method,  yet  the  method  itself  is  there  in  all  its 
majesty  of  simple  truth  :  "  When  the  true  path  of  inquiry 
has  once  been  indicated,  the  rest  is  comparatively  easy. 
The  beaten  highway  is  always  open;  and  the  difficulty  is 
not  to  find  those  who  will  travel  the  old  road,  but  those 
who  will  make  a  fresh  one.  Every  age  produces  in  abun- 
dance men  of  sagacity  and  of  considerable  industry,  who, 
while  perfectly  competent  to  increase  the  details  of  a 
science,  are  unable  to  extend  its  distant  boundaries.  This 


182  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

is  because  such  extension  must  be  accompanied  by  a  new 
method,  which,  to  be  valuable  as  well  as  new,  supposes  on 
the  part  of  its  suggester,  not  only  a  complete  mastery  over 
the  resources  of  his  subject,  but  also  of  the  possession  of 
originality  and  comprehensiveness — the  two  rarest  forms 
of  human  genius." 

Had  he  lived  to  finish  the  introduction,  we  should 
have  had  a  work  as  complete  in  itself  as  Comte's  "  Phi- 
losophic Positive " ;  that  is,  the  philosophy  of  history 
without  the  detailed  historical  proof.  It  is  sad  that  he 
did  not  live  to  finish  his  work,  and  sad,  indeed,  that  he 
did  not  live  to  finish  that  one  more  volume.  That  he 
would  have  finished  the  whole  work,  despite  the  chorus 
of  doubt  raised  by  the  reviewers  on  the  appearance  of  the 
first  volume,  is  pretty  certain.  "  They  do  not  know  the 
amount  of  material  I  have  collected,"  he  was  wont  to  say. 
And  we,  who  are  privileged  to  see  a  part,  and  but  a  small 
part,  of  what  he  had  collected  in  his  published  common- 
place books,  can  well  believe  that,  had  he  lived,  the  work 
would  by  this  time  have  been  an  accomplished  fact.  Nine 
more  volumes  had  to  be  written,  and  he  calculated  that 
each  of  them  would  have  taken  two  years  to  write."  It 
was  no  careless  ambition  that  laid  the  foundation  of  so 
grand  an  enterprise.  With  the  faculties  he  felt  that  he 
possessed,  and  the  ample  materials  he  had  collected ;  with 
the  determination  to  postpone  to  that  one  work  every 
other  object  of  ambition,  devote  his  whole  strength  to 
that  alone,  and  sacrifice  to  it  many  interests  which  men 
hold  dear,  he  was  justified  in  his  belief  that  such  power 

16  His  own  estimate  varied  considerably.     I  have  heard  it  stated  on  good 
authority  that  he  had  estimated  the  number  of  volumes  required  at  twenty. 


FALSE  ACCUSATIONS.  183 

and  self-denial  should  yield  success.  Some  of  the  most 
pleasurable  incentives  to  action  he  must  disregard.  "  ISTot 
for  him,"  he  says,  in  that  mournful  peroration  written 
soon  after  his  mother's  death  " — "  not  for  him  are  those 
rewards  which  in  other  pursuits  the  same  energy  would 
have  earned ;  not  for  him,  the  sweets  of  popular  applause ; 
not  for  him,  the  luxury  of  power ;  not  for  him,  a  share  in 
the  councils  of  his  country ;  not  for  him,  a  conspicuous 
and  honored  place  before  the  public  eye.  Albeit  con- 
scious of  what  he  could  do,  he  may  not  compete  in  the 
great  contest ;  he  can  not  hope  to  win  the  prize ;  he  can 
not  even  enjoy  the  excitement  of  the  struggle.  To  him 
the  arena  is  closed.  His  recompense  lies  within  himself, 
and  he  must  learn  to  care  little  for  the  sympathy  of  his 
fellow  creatures  or  for  such  honors  as  they  are  able  to 
bestow.  So  far  from  looking  for  these  things,  he  should 
rather  be  prepared  for  that  obloquy  which  always  awaits 
those,  who,  by  opening  up  new  veins  of  thought,  disturb 
the  prejudices  of  their  contemporaries.  "While  ignorance, 
and  worse  than  ignorance,  is  imputed  to  him ;  while  his 
motives  are  misrepresented  and  his  integrity  impeached ; 
while  he  is  accused  of  denying  the  value  of  moral  prin- 
ciples, and  of  attacking  the  foundation  of  all  religion,  as 
if  he  were  some  public  enemy,  who  made  it  his  business 
to  corrupt  society,  and  whose  delight  it  was  to  see  what 
evil  he  could  do;  while  these  charges  are  brought  for- 
ward, and  repeated  from  mouth  to  mouth,  he  must  be 
capable  of  pursuing  in  silence  the  even  tenor  of  his  way, 
without  swerving,  without  pausing,  and  without  stepping 
from  his  path  to  notice  the  angry  outcries  which  he  can 

17  To  the  fourth  chapter  of  his  second  volume. 


184  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

not  but  hear,  and  which  he  is  more  than  human  if  he  does 
not  long  to  rebuke.  These  are  the  qualities  and  these 
the  high  resolves  indispensable  to  him,  who,  on  the  most 
important  of  all  subjects,  believing  the  old  road  is  worn 
out  and  useless,  seeks  to  strike  out  a  new  one  for  himself, 
and  in  the  effort  not  only  perhaps  exhausts  his  strength, 
but  is  sure  to  incur  the  enmity  of  those  who  are  bent  on 
maintaining  the  ancient  scheme  unimpaired.  To  solve 
the  great  problem  of  affairs,  to  detect  those  hidden  cir- 
cumstances which  determine  the  march  and  destiny  of 
nations,  and  to  find  in  the  events  of  the  past  a  key  to 
the  proceedings  of  the  future,  is  nothing  less  than  to  unite 
into  a  single  science  all  the  laws  of  the  moral  and  physi- 
cal world.  Whoever  does  this  will  build  up  afresh  the 
fabric  of  our  knowledge,  rearrange  its  various  parts,  and 
harmonize  its  apparent  discrepancies.  Perchance  the 
human  mind  is  hardly  ready  for  so  vast  an  enterprise. 
At  all  events,  he  who  undertakes  it  will  meet  with  little 
sympathy,  and  will  find  few  to  help  him." 

And  then  his  voice  sinks  to  a  more  somber  tone,  as  he 
almost  foresees  the  sad  fate  which  awaits  him :  "  And,  let 
him  toil  as  he  may,  the  sun  and  noontide  of  his  life  shall 
pass  by,  the  evening  of  his  days  shall  overtake  him,  and 
he  himself  have  to  quit  the  scene,  leaving  that  unfinished 
which  he  had  vainly  hoped  to  complete.  He  may  lay  the 
foundation ;  it  will  be  for  his  successors  to  raise  the  edi- 
fice. Their  hands  will  give  the  last  touch ;  they  will  reap 
the  glory;  their  names  will  be  remembered  when  his 
is  forgotten.  It  is,  indeed,  too  true  that  such  a  work 
requires,  not  only  several  minds,  but  also  the  successive 
experience  of  several  generations.  Once,  I  own,  I  thought 


HOPES  AND  EEGRETS.  185 

otherwise.  Once,  when  I  first  caught  sight  of  the  whole 
field  of  knowledge,  and  seemed,  however  dimly,  to  dis- 
cern its  various  parts  and  the  relation  they  bbre  to  one  an- 
other, I  was  so  entranced  with  its  surpassing  beauty  that 
the  judgment  was  beguiled,  and  I  deemed  myself  able, 
not  only  to  cover  the  surface,  but  also  to  master  the 
details.  Little  did  I  know  how  the  horizon  enlarges  as 
well  as  recedes,  and  how  vainly  we  grasp  at  the  fleeting 
forms  which  melt  away  and  elude  us  in  the  distance.  Of 
all  that  I  had  hoped  to  do,  I  now  find  but  too  surely  how 
small  a  part  I  shall  accomplish.  In  those  early  aspira- 
tions there  was  much  that  was  fanciful;  perhaps  there 
was  much  that  was  foolish.  Perhaps,  too,  they  contained 
a  moral  defect,  and  savored  of  an  arrogance  which  belongs 
to  a  strength  that  refuses  to  recognize  its  own  weakness. 
Still,  even  now  that  they  are  defeated  and  brought  to 
naught,  I  can  not  repent  having  indulged  in  them,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  I  would  willingly  recall  them,  if  I  could. 
For  such  hopes  belong  to  that  joyous  and  sanguine  period 
of  h'f e  when  alone  we  are  really  happy ;  when  the  emo- 
tions are  more  active  than  the  judgment ;  when  experience 
has  not  yet  hardened  our  nature ;  when  the  affections  are 
not  yet  blighted  and  nipped  to  the  core ;  and  when,  the 
bitterness  of  disappointment  not  having  yet  been  felt, 
difficulties  are  unheeded,  obstacles  are  unseen,  ambition 
is  a  pleasure  instead  of  a  pang,  and,  the  blood  coursing 
swiftly  through  the  veins,  the  pulse  beats  high,  while  the 
heart  throbs  at  the  prospect  of  the  future.  Those  are 
glorious  days,  but  they  go  from  us,  and  nothing  can 
compensate  their  absence.  To  me  they  now  seem  more 
like  the  visions  of  a  disordered  fancy  than  the  sober 


186  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

realities  of  things  that  were,  and  are  not.  It  is  painful 
to  make. % this  .confession,  but  I  owe  it  to  the  reader,  be- 
cause I  would  not  have  him  to  suppose  that  either  in  this 
or  in  future  volumes  of  my  "  History  "  I  shall  be  able  to 
redeem  my  pledge,  and  to  perform  all  that  I  promised. 
Something  I  hope  to  achieve  which  will  interest  the 
thinkers  of  this  age,  and  something,  perhaps,  on  which 
posterity  may  build.  It  will,  however,  only  be  a  frag- 
ment of  my  original  design."  It  was  necessary  to  curtail 
the  "  Introduction,"  or  he  could  never  hope  to  finish  the 
"  History  "  as  he  had  laid  it  out. 

To  turn  from  the  consideration  of  Buckle's  work  to 
that  of  some  of  the  criticisms  which  have  been  lavished 
upon  it  is  a  passage  from  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous. 
Some  call  him  the  "  English  Comte  "  ;  some  "  Quetelet's 
Enfant  Terrible  "  ;  some  go  even  so  far  as  to  call  the  work 
a  mere  compilation.  These  charges  are  not,  as  might  be 
thought,  mere  spite  aroused  by  the  unpleasant  truths  which 
Buckle  has  told.  Had  they  been  so,  it  would  not  have 
been  worth  while  to  notice  them.  But  they  are  specimens 
of  a  sort  of  mental  incapacity  which  is  fostered  by  micro- 
scopic study,  an  inability  to  generalize  or  see  a  generaliza- 
tion. It  will  be  well,  therefore,  to  fix,  in  some  measure, 
Buckle's  place  in  history,  show  to  which  among  his  prede- 
cessors he  is  really  indebted,  and  what  is  the  amount  of 
that  debt. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Only  Comparative  Originality  possible — Comte  and  Buckle — Vito — Machiavelli 
— Bodin — Bossuet — Montesquieu — Kant — Buckle — His  place  in  History. 

OKIGINALITY,  as  understood  by  the  vulgar,  is  indepen- 
dence of  the  labors  of  others.  Its  utter  impossibility  under 
such  a  definition  is,  however,  sometimes  recognized,  and 
hence  originality  is  sometimes  allowed  to  a  man  who  in- 
vents a  new  way  of  threading  a  needle ;  or  they  may  call 
the  discovery  of  the  retina-purple  original  because  it  has 
not  an  obvious  connection  with  the  labors  of  former  physi- 
ologists. But,  if  a  man  patiently  and  laboriously  collects 
all  that  has  been  done  in  his  particular  study,  and  then,  in 
full  public  view,  generalizes  the  facts  and  evolves  order 
out  of  chaos,  "  Oh,"  say  they,  "  we  could  do  the  same  our- 
selves ! "  The  one  is  the  obvious  and  almost  mechanical 
result  of  the  other ;  we  will  not  allow  originality  to  what 
seems  so  calm  and  unbroken  a  process.  Eeasoning  in  this 
way,  it  is  just  as  easy  to  deny  all  merit  to  the  designer  of 
the  Parthenon.  Temples  have  been  built  of  a  like  form 
before.  These  Doric  columns  are  to  be  seen  in  Egypt ; 
that  ornament  is  a  transformation  of  the  Assyrian  honey- 
suckle pattern.  Is  there,  then,  nothing  new  in  the  ex- 
quisite proportion  of  those  columns,  the  subordination  of 
the  several  parts,  the  gentle  curves  on  every  side,  the  re- 
jection of  what  is  bad,  and  the  position  of  what  is  good  ? 

"Were  originality,  as  thus  defined,  possible,  then,  as- 


188  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

suredly,  of  all  classes  of  authors,  the  writers  of  fiction 
should  owe  least  to  their  predecessors ;  and  yet  in  no  class 
of  literature  is  the  dependence  on  what  has  gone  before 
more  marked.  Leaving  out  of  consideration  mere  imita- 
tion of  style  and  choice  of  subject,  which  constantly  runs 
in  sequences  until  it  is  stopped  by  some  form  of  ridicule, 
such  as  Cervantes' s  "  Don  Quixote,"  or  Boileau's  "  Heros 
de  Roman,"  we  can  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  evident  evo- 
lution of  one  piece  of  fiction  from  another,  and  even  to 
the  instances  of  direct  plagiarism  with  which  the  best  and 
most  original  works  of  fiction  abound.  Name  whom  we 
may,  a  little  consideration  will  convince  us  that  each  has 
been  greatly  dependent  upon  his  predecessors.  Let  us 
cite  the  first  great  poets  whose  names  occur  to  us — say 
Homer,  Yirgil,  Dante,  Ariosto,  Shakespeare,  Spenser,  and 
Milton.  With  the  exception  of  the  first,  who  can  be  left 
out  of  account,  it  is  easy  to  show  their  dependence.  Dante 
avows  his  obligations  to  Yirgil,  a  poet  himself  greatly  de- 
pendent on  Homer,  and  who,  in  his  turn,  has  inspired 
most  of  the  heroic  poets  of  the  middle  ages.  Ariosto  has 
been  greatly  indebted  to  him,  to  Ovid,  and  even  to  Horace.1 

1  For  example : 

"  Arma  virumque  cano,  Trojae  qui  primus  ab  oris 
Italiam,  fato  profugus,  Laviniaque  venit 
Littora— " 

"  Le  Donne,  i  cavalier,  1'  arme,  gli  amori 
Le  cortesie,  1'  audaci  imprese  io  canto, 
Che  furo  al  tempo  che  passaro  i  Mori 
D' Africa  il  mare,"  etc. 

"  Neque 

Decedit  aerata  triremi,  et 
Post  equitem  sedet  atra  cura." 

"  Lo  trova  in  su  la  roda  e  in  su  la  poppa 
E  se  cavalca,  il  porta  dietro  in  groppa." 


NON-ORIGINALITY  OF  WRITERS.  189 

Shakespeare  has  no  original  plots.  Spenser  is  deeply  in- 
debted to  Ariosto,  and  we  find  at  least  one  example 2  of  a 
very  important  idea  common  both  to  him.  and  Shake- 
speare. Milton,  too,  is  a  boundless  borrower.3  Indeed,  so 
far  does  this  dependency  go  that  not  a  single  work  of  any 
description  can  be  said  to  be  original  in  the  strict  sense 
laid  down  at  the  opening  of  this  chapter.  Each  one  im- 
proves a  little  or  draws  new  truths  from  the  works  of  his 
predecessors.  Nor  are  the  "prose  writers  of  fiction  any 
more  original  than  the  poets.  From  the  earliest  times  be- 
fore stories  were  committed  to  writing  their  universal  ori- 
gin was  in  a  fact,  such  as  a  love-story  or  a  fight.  This 
was  told  in  various  forms,  incidents  were  added,  stories 
divided,  and  mixed  and  made  new  again.  Thus  Spenser 
introduced  an  island  full  of  allegorical  personages  into  his 
"  Faery  Queen,"  which  was  after  the  fashion  of  many  pro- 
ductions of  this  period;  this  gave  birth  to  Fletcher's 
"Purple  Island,"  which  produced  Bernard's  "Isle  of 
Man,"  from  which,  in  its  turn,  arose  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's 
Progress."  And  this  is  an  example  of  what  should,  ac- 
cording to  our  definition,  be  another  sort  of  want  of  origi- 

2  "  Caesar  dead  and  turned  to  clay,"  etc. 

"  Ne,  when  the  life  decays  and  form  doth  fade, 
Doth  it  consume,  and  into  nothing  go, 
But  chaunged  is  and  altred  to  and  froe." 

8  Thus  Mr.  E.  Gosse  points  out  ("  Studies  in  the  Literature  of  Northern 
Europe,"  London,  1879)  that  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost,"  in  plot,  speeches, 
and  description,  is  founded  on  the  "  Lucifer  "  of  Van  den  Vondel.  He  is, 
besides,  indebted  to  Ariosto ;  e.  g. : 

"  Perche  fatto  non  ha  1'  alma  Natura, 
Che  senza  te  potessi  nascer  1'  uomo,"  etc. 

"  Oh,  why  did  God  .  .  .  create  at  last 
This  Novelty  on  earth  ?  "  etc. 


190  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

nality:  his  description  of  Yanity  Fair,  for  instance,  was 
probably  taken  from  Bartholomew  Fair  or  his  own  experi- 
ence, like  characters  are  taken  from  life  by  various  authors 
and  worked  up  into  different  forms ;  and  so,  too,  with  feel- 
ings that  are  common  to  the  human  race ;  for  Dante  and 
he  both  open  with  the  same  sort  of  description  of  tribula- 
tion and  doubt.  Swift,  again,  in  his  "  Gulliver's  Travels," 
Fontenelle  in  his  "  Plurality  of  Worlds,"  Yoltaire  in  his 
"  Micromegas,"  are  all  indebted  to  Bergerac.  Even  Lord 
Macaulay's  New  Zealander  is  taken  from  a  conceit  of  Gib- 
bon's; Sheridan's  Mrs.  Malaprop  from  Fielding's  Mrs. 
Slipslop ;  Dickens  owes  his  style  and  many  of  his  inci- 
dents, such  as  the  Duel  and  Samuel  Weller's  offer  of 
money  to  Pickwick,  to  Smollett,  and  "Weller's  story  of  the 
muffins  in  all  probability  to  Beauclerc's  account  to  John- 
son of  the  tragical  end  of  Mr.  Fitzherbert.  Indeed,  a  man 
who  was  really  original  in  everything  he  said  would  be  a 
very  prodigy,  as  great  a  prodigy  as  a  new  animal  not  de- 
rived from  some  similar  ancestor.  There  is  no  single 
work  whose  dependence  may  not  be  traced  upward  from 
suggester  to  suggester  until  its  origin  is  lost  in  antiquity, 
and  it  only  remains  for  us  to  infer  from  analogous  cases 
that  it  originated  in  some  fact. 

Such  being  the  true  genesis  of  all  works,  it  is  idle  to 
expect  in  Buckle  or  any  one  else  complete  independence 
of  all  predecessors.  But  he,  and  many  other  men  of 
genius,  are  none  the  less  original  because  their  works  are 
laboriously  raised  upon  the  studies  of  mankind.  To  pull 
down  the  old  building,  reshape  its  stones,  and  build  it  up 
into  a  more  harmonious  and  perfect  whole,  is  to  produce 
original  work.  The  difference  between  this  and  a  com- 


BUCKLE  AND  COMTE  CONTRASTED.      191 

pilation  is  the  same  as  between  one  of  Mr.  Galton's  in- 
genious combination  photographs  and  the  Venus  of  Prax- 
iteles. The  first  is  a  combination  of  all  that?  is  there ;  the 
other  requires  not  only  combination,  but  selection  of  the 
best,  together  with  that  creative  genius  which  coordinates 
and  harmonizes  the  whole  into  a  beauty  which  has  never 
yet  existed.  And  so,  in  Buckle's  plan,  we  may  trace  pass- 
ing resemblances,  while,  as  a  whole,  his  work  is  as  original 
and  fresh  as  any  creation  of  genius  yet  produced. 

It  follows:  that  supposing  Comte  and  Buckle  equals 
in  genius,  and  of  the  same  tone  of  thought,  they  should 
have  produced  works  extremely  similar  to  each  other. 
And  so  they  both  were,  in  part.  They  were  both  deeply 
imbued  with  the  idea  of  the  order  and  regularity  of  every- 
thing in  the  universe  ;  both  had  had  the  same  predecessors ; 
they  were  contemporary  and  men  of  genius;  but  there 
they  diverge,  and  their  circumstances  were  so  different 
that  the  resemblances  are  almost  insignificant.  We  should 
do  Comte  an  injustice  were  we  to  compare  him  directly 
with  Buckle.  Though  they  wrote  on  the  same  subject, 
their  aims  were  entirely  different:  Comte' s  main  work 
was  the  classification  of  the  sciences,  to  which  sociology 
was  only  added  as  the  crowning-point.  He  erected  a  tem- 
porary bridge  over  the  gulf  which  separates  the  science  of 
man  from  the  remainder  of  the  sciences ;  but  it  was  only  a 
makeshift,  because  he  neglected  to  use  all  the  material 
which  former  workmen  had  collected  on  its  shores.  His 
judgment,  moreover,  was  warped — I  had  almost  said  en- 
slaved— by  the  circumstances  in  which  he  had  the  misfor- 
tune to  be  placed.  Amid  a  nation  worn  out  with  the 
excitement  of  endless  revolution,  condemned  like  those 


192  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

unhappy  spirits  on  the  fiery  sands  of  the  seventh  circle  to 
constant  movement,  and  whose  momentary  pause  before 
the  allotted  time  was  punished  with  a  hundred  years  of 
additional  torment;  giddy  with  change,  their  faculties 
amazed  by  the  doubt  thrown  upon  every  principle  that  in 
quiet  times  is  almost  inborn  and  clings  to  us  unquestioned 
through  a  lifetime.  Rampant  theories  jostled  each  other 
in  the  race  for  power ;  while  Comte,  amid  all  this  bustle 
and  clatter,  this  jangling  and  jarring  and  hurly-burly  of 
opinions,  turned  a  longing  eye  to  those  quiet  and  sleepy 
times  when  there  was  an  authority  to  direct  the  opinions 
of  men — a  time  doubly  quiet  and  orderly  when  viewed 
through  the  mist  of  ages  past,  when  all,  in  theory,  obeyed 
unquestioning  the  behests  of  the  wisest  of  their  race.  He 
looked  and  longed,  indeed,  but  no  mind  could  pass  through 
those  stirring  times  and  remain  the  same  as  it  was  before. 
He  was  like  to  him  tempted  of  the  fiend  in  the  guise  of 
a  fair  woman,  who  loathes  the  form  which  holy  water  re- 
veals, but  would  wish  to  recall  what  his  imagination  de- 
picted. And  so  Comte  imagined  an  impossible  pope  and 
priesthood  endowed  with  power  over  the  opinions  of  man- 
kind, telling  them  what  to  think,  and  what  they  should 
believe;  while  there  was  to  be  another  division  of  the 
government  to  carry  out  these  theories — an  executive,  as 
it  were,  to  a  moral  privy  council.  This  was  his  aim  in  his 
"  Sociologie,"  which  is  further  elaborated  in  his  "  Philoso- 
phic Politique  "  ;  and  it  is  enough  to  repeat  what  Buckle 
has  already  said  of  it,  that  its  serious  proposal  would  make 
the  plain  men  of  our  island  lift  up  their  eyes  in  astonish- 
ment, and  probably  suggest  that  its  author  should  for  his 
own  sake  be  immediately  confined — so  monstrously  and 


DIFFERENCES  POINTED   OUT.  193 

obviously  was  it  impracticable.4  It  was,  indeed,  inevitable 
from  the  circumstances  of  his  life  that  he  should  be  un- 
practical. Had  he  possessed  practicality,  he?  would  have 
been  a  very  great  writer,  and,  even  as  it  is,  he  is  far  be- 
yond the  ordinary  run.  But  his  incapacity  to  .see  the  need 
of  freedom,  and  particularly  of  that  primary  need  so  em- 
phasized by  Buckle,  that  governments  must  always  follow 
the  wishes  of  the  people,  and  can  never  lead  them,  is  alone 
sufficient  to  show  that  he  had  not  grasped  the  science  of 
history.  With  Comte  the  people  can  not  move  intelli- 
gently out  of  the  leading-strings  of  the  government ;  with 
Buckle,  the  sole  function  of  a  government  is  to  express  as 
best  it  may  the  sum  of  the  national  will.  He  has  made  a 
great  advance ;  he  has  shown  the  interconnection  of  many 
historic  facts  of  western  Europe ;  he  has  insisted  on  the 
subjection  of  man  to  his  antecedents ;  but  he  has  neglected 
the  connection  between  man  and  natural  laws. 

What  is  usually  advanced  as  representing  this  connec- 
tion is  the  famous  law  of  the  Three  States,  on  the  value 
and  importance  of  which  he  so  strongly  insists.  But  it  ap- 
pears to  me  that  its  value  has  been  very  greatly  exagger- 
ated, and  it  is  well  known  that  it  is  original  only  in 
its  modification,  and  can  be  traced  upward  from  Comte, 
through  St.  Simon,  Turgot,  Fichte,  Yico,  to  the  early 
writers  on  the  philosophy  of  history.  They  represent  the 
last  remains  of  that  universal  passion  for  ticketing  which 
was  formerly  thought  to  constitute  science.  Everywhere 
in  these  earlier  philosophies  do  we  see  history  carefully  di- 
vided into  so  many  ages — the  Age  of  Gold,  the  Age  of 
Bronze,  and  the  Age  of  Iron ;  or  the  ages  of  childhood,  pu- 

4  "Essay  on  Mill,"  "Fraser's  Magazine"  for  May,  1859,  p.  511. 
13 


194:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

bert y,  manhood,  decline,  and  decrepitude.  In  all,  the  pres- 
ent age  is  invariably  the  age  of  decrepitude ;  nor  is  Comte 
an  exception,  for  with  him  the  present  and  positive  stage 
is  also  the  last.  Just  as  ages  of  childhood,  manhood,  and 
puberty  serve  in  some  measure  to  picture  the  actual  prog- 
ress of  the  world,  so  the  three  stages  of  Comte  also  roughly 
represent  a  true  course  of  thought.  In  so  far,  they  are  of 
value,  but  they  serve  little  or  nothing  to  explain  the  dy- 
namics of  civilization — why  mankind  should  progress  in 
one  way  more  than  another,  why  certain  nations  should 
outstrip  their  compeers ;  in  a  word,  just  that  which  he 
thinks  they  explain. 

The  recklessness  of  the  assertion  that  Buckle  owed 
everything  to  Comte  is  obvious  to  whoever  will  consider 
what  each  has  achieved  in  the  science  of  history.  Indeed, 
their  similarity  is  only  incidental.  They  held  certain 
views  in  common  because  their  subjects  overlapped  each 
other — Comte  in  seeking  for  a  rational  form  of  govern- 
ment, and  Buckle  in  showing  how  every  movement  of 
mankind  is  subject  to  law.  But  the  difference  between 
the  two  is  far  greater  than  that  between  Comte  and  St. 
Simon,  or  Buckle  and  Montesquieu;  and,  moreover,  it  is 
fundamental.  Their  different  treatment  of  history  is 
shown  most  clearly  in  such  points  as  Comte's  failure  in 
every  case  to  account  for  the  greater  advance  of  one  coun- 
try than  another,  as,  for  instance,  Italy  than  Spain;  or 
why  certain  countries  adopted  Protestantism  and  others 
did  not;  and  in  his  irrational  exaltation  of  Catholicism, 
due  to  his  ignorance  of  the  early  heresies  and  his  false 
notions  of  its  unity  and  power.  He  has  idealized  it ;  he 
supposes  it  existed  as  a  great  moral  power,  and  that  from 


COMTE'S  ERRONEOUS  DEDUCTION'S.  195 

it,  during  the  middle  ages,  all  reform  originated.  He 
either  did  not  know,  or  he  ignored  the  fact,  that  the  Cath- 
olic Church  was  never  so  united  as  it  has  been  during  this 
century ;  that  in  earlier  ages  the  difficulties  of  communi- 
cation were  too  great  to  allow  of  more  than  a  nominal 
exercise  of  the  central  power ;  and  that,  from  the  earliest 
to  the  present  time,  it  never  had  the  power  that  he  claims 
for  it.  The  priesthood,  which  he  alleges  to  have  been  of 
immense  importance  in  all  countries  and  nations  as  a 
speculative  class,  have,  moreover,  considering  the  leisure 
they  enjoyed,  done  little  or  nothing  compared  with  other 
classes.  They  did  not  separate  theory  and  practice,  but 
were  in  all  nations  rather  practical  than  theoretical.  The 
treatment  of  the  middle  ages,  for  which  Comte  has  been 
most  praised,  was  indeed  that  in  which  he  failed  most 
signally,  partly  on  account  of  his  early  education,  which 
narrowed  his  mind,  and  partly  on  account  of  his  protec- 
tionist bias,  which  led  him  to  look  behind  the  revolution- 
ary period  for  the  quiet  for  which  he  longed,  and,  trusting 
to  De  Maistre's  account,  to  imagine  that  something  of  the 
same  organization  as  existed  in  the  middle  ages  would 
calm  existing  troubles  and  reconcile  existing  distraction. 

There  are  many  points  upon  which  Comte  and  Buckle 
are  one ;  perhaps  they  are  even  more  than  those  in  which 
they  differ ;  but,  while  the  former  are  mostly  subsidiary, 
the  latter  are  mostly  fundamental.  Comte's  laws  of  civili- 
zation are  evolved  as  a  necessary  deduction  from  his  hie- 
rarchy of  the  sciences ;  he  supposes  mankind  to  be  subject 
to  natural  laws,  and  not  above  them,  simply  because  other 
matters  have  been  reduced  to  order  and  brought  into  the 
domain  of  science.  Buckle,  on  the  other  hand,  proves  the 


196  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

predictability  of  human  actions  by  statistics.  Comte  ad- 
vances as  important  laws  of  history  his  theological,  meta- 
physical, and  positive  stages,  which  he  afterward  reasons 
deductively  by  illustrations  from  history.  These,  which 
are  mere  tickets  of  phases  of  thought,  analogous  to  the 
labels  on  specimens  in  a  museum,  are  rightly  unnoticed  by 
Buckle,  who  discovers  the  laws  of  civilization  first  induc- 
tively, and  then,  when  he  has  done  this,  reverses  the 
process  and  proves  them  deductively.  In  this  the  Com- 
tists  accuse  him  of  inconsequence,  because  they  are  more 
familiar  with  the  "  Philosophic  Positive  "  than  the  "  His- 
tory of  Civilization,"  and  urge  that  without  the  proof  of 
the  hierarchy  of  the  sciences  history  can  not  be  made 
positive;  when,  in  fact,  Buckle  has  proved  directly  and 
incontrovertibly  the  dependence  of  human  actions  on  their 
antecedent  circumstances,  while  the  hierarchy  of  the  sci- 
ences is  a  very  unsafe  proof  indeed.6  Every  step  Buckle 
takes  is  strictly  reasoned,  and  his  proof  is  more  positive 
and  verified  than  any  Comte  chooses  to  give  us ;  that  is, 
Buckle's  work  stands  on  the  same  basis  as  any  other  scien- 
tific work,  while  Comte,  with  all  his  positive  claim,  stands 
on  a  basis  not  much  more  secure  than,  say,  Smith's  "  The- 
ory of  Moral  Sentiments,"  or,  in  other  words,  though  his 
method  is  positive,  there  is  no  inductive  complement  to  his 

6  Without  entering  upon  this  large  subject  in  the  way  of  proof — which 
has  been  done,  indeed,  far  better  than  would  be  possible  to  me,  by  Mr.  Her- 
bert Spencer — I  would  merely  point  out  the  obvious  truth  that  chemistry 
could  be  as  well  understood  without  mathematics  and  physics  as  astronomy 
without  chemistry,  physics,  and  geology.  The  failure  of  M.  Comte's  proof 
as  to  the  hierarchy  of  the  sciences,  as  that  of  the  value  of  the  three  stages, 
though  it  greatly  lessens  the  value  of  the  work  according  to  his  own  estima- 
tion, nevertheless  deprives  it  of  little  merit ;  for,  as  he  himself  so  often 
points  out,  any  work  which  coordinates  human  knowledge  is  of  value ;  and 
in  details  the  "  Philosophic  Positive  "  is  extremely  valuable  and  suggestive. 


BUCKLE'S  DISTINCTIVE  MERIT.  197 

deductive  proof.  Again,  Comte  knows  hardly  anything  of 
and  despises  political  economy  ;  and  supposes  that  it  would 
be  both  practicable  and  desirable  that  all  nations  should  be 
directed  by  their  governments,  and  that  all  nations  should 
agree  to  be  governed  by  a  parliament  of  the  wise,  and 
accept  their  laws  on  trust— laws,  the  object  of  which  they 
did  not  understand — a  proposition  which  of  itself  shows 
how  little  Comte  grasped  one  of  the  most  important  of  his- 
torical facts ;  while  Buckle's  chief  merit  is  that  he  first  made 
a  science  of  history  by  connecting  it  with  political  econ- 
omy and  statistics,  and  has  shown  how  every  advance  is 
intellectual  from  the  people,  and  never  in  the  opposite  j 
direction.  Indeed,  one  of  the  truths  he  most  insists  upon 
is,  that  it  is  better  to  make  a  harmful  law  with  the  concur- 
rence of  the  people  than  to  make  a  good  one  which  they 
do  not  like.  Neither  is  Buckle  solely  a  positivist  like 
Comte,  for  he  allows  the  truth  of  the  emotions.  ISTor  does 
he  venture  to  set  a  limit  to  the  conquests  of  human  mind, 
as  Comte,  and  even  scientific  men  of  the  present  day,  are 
so  fond  of  doing,  when  a  mere  cursory  survey  of  history 
must  convince  all  unprejudiced  people  that  we  are  far  too 
ignorant  to  give  any  opinion  on  the  matter  beyond  this, 
that  the  achievements  of  the  human  mind  will  be  far 
beyond  anything  we  can  at  present  even  imagine.  In 
religious  opinion  they  were  much  the  same.  Both  Comte 
and  Buckle  allowed  that  the  existence  of  God  and  the 
immortality  of  man  could  not,  at  all  events  at  present  or 
in  the  immediate  future,  be  positively  proved.  But  there 
they  diverged — Comte  to  a  ridiculous  ritual  under  the  belief 
that,  the  one  being  unattainable,  human  needs  must  be  sat- 
isfied on  the  model  of  what  had  satisfied  the  only  Church 


198  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

he  ever  knew ;  Buckle  to  what  at  least  was  for  himself  a 
transcendental  proof,  that  what  for  mankind  was  a  uni- 
versal need  was  also  a  scientific  truth. 

In  these,  which  are  all  of  them  fundamental  points,  and 
which  might  have  been  added  to,  there  is,  as  I  have  al- 
ready said,  more  difference  between  the  views  of  Comte 
and  Buckle  than  between  either  of  the  two  and  many  of 
their  predecessors ;  and  I  have  dwelt  the  more  upon  them 
than  on  the  points  of  similarity,  even  at  the  risk  of  ap- 
pearing unjust  to  Comte,  because  they  are  both  more  im- 
portant, and  also  refute  the  shallow  opinion  that  Buckle 
has  only  popularized  in  England  what  Comte  had  first  dis- 
covered in  France.  At  the  same  time,  there  are  many  and 
valuable  hints  which  Buckle  has  obtained  from  Comte  in 
minor  matters,  which  no  doubt  saved  him  trouble,  though, 
in  my  opinion,  his  book  would  have  been  very  much  as 
it  now  is  had  Comte's  never  been  written.6  The  points 
of  resemblance  are  mostly  necessary  deductions,  such  as 
the  value  of  the  inventions  of  gunpowder,  the  compass, 
and  printing ; 7  that  the  standard  of  clerical  recruits  is  not 
as  high  as  it  was ; 8  that  the  supposition  that  morality  is 
identical  with  religion  is  ruinous  to  the  former;9  and 
others,  together  with  certain  deductions  which  at  first  sight 

6  This  is  not  M.  LittrS's  opinion,  who  says :  "H  n'aurait  jamais  ecrit  un 
tel  livre,  s'il  n'y  avait  pas  eu  avant  lui  le  livre  de  M.  Comte  "  ("  La  Philoso- 
phic Positive,"  p.  65,  vol.  ii.,  January  to  June,  1868).     To  which  we  may  op- 
pose M.  de  Remusat,  who  is  at  least  unprejudiced :  "  Et  cependant  nous 
pencherions  a  croire  qu'il  lui  doit  peu  de  reconnaissance.     Rien  ne  nous 
prouve  qu'il  n'eut  pas  trouve  de  lui  meme  ce  qu'il  lui  emprunte  "  ("  Revue 
des  Deux  Mondes,"  p.  19,  vol.  xviii.,  1st  November,  1858).     But  this  is  a 
minor  consideration ;  it  is  sufficient  that  no  one  can  justly  say  that  Comte 
was  Buckle's  "  master." 

7  "  Philosophic  Positive,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  104. 

8  Ibid.,  pp.  422,  423.  9  Ibid.,  p.  554. 


BUCKLE'S   OBLIGATIONS  TO  PREDECESSORS.      199 

seem  to  be  identical,  such  as  their  common  neglect  of  meta- 
physics, but  which,  in  reality,  are  fundamentally  differ- 
ent ;  since  Comte  refuses  to  have  anything  to^do  with  meta- 
physics on  the  ground  that  the  mind  is  unable  to  observe 
itself,10  and  that  transcendental  views  are  unprovable; 
while  Buckle,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  discard  meta- 
physics altogether,  but  points  out  that  the  method  of  ob- 
serving individual  minds  is  not  trustworthy,  and  the  right 
method  is  to  study  first  the  manifestations  of  the  mass  of 
minds,  and  then  only  confirm  these  observations  by  the 
former  method." 

Of  course  Buckle  would  have  been  the  last  to  claim  for 
himself  originality  in  the  sense  that  he  owed  nothing  to 
his  predecessors,  to  whom  he  was  indebted  in  the  mass,  and 
without  whose  labors  he  could  not  have  written  as  he  has. 
To  point  out  the  particulars  of  his  indebtedness,  or  whose 
was  the  ore  from  which  any  grain  of  metal  has  been  ex- 
tracted, is,  however,  beyond  the  scope  of  this  work,  and 
would,  moreover,  be  as  difficult  and  unsatisfactory  as  to 
endeavor  to  point  out  in  what  Fraxiteles's  Yenus  was  in- 
debted to  each  of  the  hundred  models.  In  each  and  every 
of  Buckle's  predecessors  we  must  of  necessity  find  some 
points  of  resemblance ;  but  it  will  be  sufficient  for  us  to 
consider  his  real  predecessors,  or  those  who  have  taken  an 
important  step  in  advance,  and  leave  out  of  account  the 
feudal  crowd  who  can  only  follow  whither  their  knightly 
leaders  have  gone  before. 

Now  the  really  important  ideas  which  have  made  a  sci- 
ence of  history  possible  are  extremely  few.  These  are: 

10  "  Philosophic  Positive,"  vol.  iv.,  pp.  483,  488. 

11  Buckle's  «  History  of  Civilization,"  i.,  151,  152. 


200  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

Firstly,  that  man's  course  on  earth  is  orderly,  and  not  erra- 
tic ;  first  really  propounded  by  Yico.  Secondly,  that  man 
is  governed  by  natural  laws ;  a  proposition  really  due  to 
Montesquieu.  Thirdly,  that  the  laws  of  history  are  to  be 
looked  for  in  the  actions  of  the  mass  of  mankind,  and  not 
in  those  of  the  individual ;  propounded  by  Kant.  And, 
lastly,  that  moral  laws  are  dependent  or  intellectual;  a 
proposition  first  enunciated  and  established  by  Buckle. 

The  great  skeptic  Yico  was  the  first  who  fairly  grasped 
the  view  that  we  must  look  for  the  laws  of  history,  not  in 
divine  interference,  but  in  natural  and  earthly  circum- 
stances. And,  though  so  great  an  opponent  of  Descartes, 
lie  nevertheless  lays  down  the  same  fundamental  proposi- 
tion— that  the  machine  of  life,  once  started,  goes  on  with- 
out the  constant  interference  of  Heaven.  This  view,  which 
his  position  at  Naples  made  dangerous,  and  his  religion 
perhaps  made  him  unwilling  to  express,  he  concealed  un- 
der the  veil  of  that  very  Providence  which  he  denied, 
saying  that  man  was  so  constituted  by  it  that  he  must 
move  in  a  constant  direction.  He  generalizes  history.  He 
saw  that  the  history  of  the  Eoman  Empire,  the  only  history 
he  knew,  was  not  a  solitary  and  peculiar  instance  of  growth 
followed  by  maturity  and  decay,  but  the  result  of  general 
laws ;  that  the  minds  of  men  were  everywhere  the  same, 
and  the  same  circumstances  would  produce  the  same  his- 
tory ;  that  individuals  do  not  shape  laws,  but  laws  shape 
individuals.  Nay,  so  bold  were  his  generalizations  and  so 
skeptical  his  mind,  that  he  denied  that  Zoroaster,  Pythago- 
ras, Solon,  and  Dracon  had  had  any  existence,  and  averred 
that  their  codes  were  first  produced  by  the  wants  of  man, 
and  then  ascribed  to  them,  by  that  tendency  in  ignorant 


THE  SKEPTIC  VICO.  201 

ages  to  ascribe  everything  great  to  individuals.  In  the 
same  way  he  anticipates  the  criticism  of  the  present  day 
as  to  the  personality  of  Homer,  of  Orpheus^-and  of  Her- 
cules ;  allowing,  in  some  cases,  a  slight  personality  which 
has  been  beplastered  with  all  the  great  deeds  of  the  like 
kind  which  really  happened  afterward,  or  which  the  imagi- 
nation of  succeeding  generations  considered  would  render 
the  image  more  symmetrical.  His  method  is  the  same  as 
Comte's.  He  has  inherited  of  the  classical  period  with  its 
successive  metaphysical  developers  the  theory  of  stages  of 
development,  and  shows  that  he  has  rightly  conceived  the 
possibility  of  a  science  of  history,  by  applying  them,  all 
imperfect  as  they  are,  to  the  history  of  ancient  nations, 
and  more '  particularly  to  that  of  Rome,  where  he  again 
anticipates  the  criticism  of  Niebuhr  in  his  denial  of  the 
early  myths  and  in  their  rational  explanation.  And,  though 
he  himself  is  not  guiltless  of  the  production  of  mythological 
history,  and  we  may  now  smile  at  his  thunder-storm  theory 
of  civilization,  we  must  remember  that  it  does  not  materially 
differ  from  the  tone  of  thought  which  produced  the  geologi- 
cal-catastrophe theories  prevalent  before  the  era  of  Lyell. 

Justly,  therefore,  has  Yico  been  styled  the  father  of  the 
philosophy  of  history,  in  the  sense  established  by  literary 
usage,  which,  however,  is  in  the  same  sense  that  some  type 
of  Lemur  is  the  father  of  mankind.  He  is  the  ancestor 
up  to  whom  we  can  trace  the  lineage ;  but  he  is  not  the 
father.  Though  he  had  glimpses  of  truth,  there  was  much 
worthless  matter  together  with  that  which  was  good.  He 
seized  the  fact  that  civilization  is  not  due  to  individual 
lawgivers,  who  are  merely  the  expression  of  the  age ;  that 
progress  is  due  to  the  natural  satisfaction  of  human  needs, 


202  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

for  which  he  was  to  some  extent  indebted  to  Machiavelli's 
axiom  that  each  man  seeks  what  is  best  for  himself ;  that, 
given  the  same  circumstances,  the  same  history  will  be 
evolved ;  but,  owing  to  the  age  in  which  he  wrote  and  the 
consequent  narrowness  of  his  view,  he  thought  that  the 
same  circumstances  did  sometimes  recur,  and  hence  his 
well-known  historical  corsi  and  ricorsi.  With  little  more 
than  the  Roman  history  and  the  Italy  of  his  day  in  view, 
he  thought  the  only  possible  change  was  to  some  form 
which  had  existed  before ;  and  for  this  again  he  was  in- 
debted to  Machiavelli,  who  was  to  Yico  much  the  same  as 
Alexander  Bodin  to  Montesquieu — that  is,  both  Bodin  and 
Machiavelli  revived  the  classical  tone  of  thought  and  am- 
plified it.  But  the  sixteenth  century  was  too  'early,  and 
those  who  might  have  succeeded  were  necessarily  doomed 
to  fail  in  an  enterprise  which  was  reserved  for  the  genius 
of  the  eighteenth.  Before  Yico  everything  was  considered 
from  a  supernatural  point  of  view,  a  method  of  treatment 
of  which  Bossuet  is  the  most  perfect  exponent,  notwith- 
standing that  he  lived  a  hundred  years  later  than  Bodin. 
Had  Bossuet  not  been  a  priest,  and  Louis  XIY.  not  been 
his  king,  it  is  possible  that  his  great  powers  might  have 
earned  for  him  the  title  which  Yico  subsequently  won. 
His  circumstances,  however,  overcame  his  genius,  and  the 
work  which  professed  to  be  a  history  of  the  causes  of  the 
rise  and  fall  of  nations,  from  the  earliest  times  down  to 
Charlemagne,  turned  out  to  be  simply  so  many  instances, 
made  to  fit  in  from  history,  to  his  leading  idea  that  the 
world  exists  for  the  sake  of  the  Catholic  Church.12 

12 1  have  hardly  found  in  Professor  Flint's  "  Philosophy  of  History,"  or 
in  his  account  in  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,"  a  single  word  in  Buckle's 


BOSSUET.  203 

Vico,  like  Comte,  lias  not  taught  us  laws  of  civilization. 
But  he  lias  taught  us  to  look  for  them  in  the  doings  of 

praise ;  and  not  only  does  he  practically  adopt  many  of  Buckle's  views  with- 
out a  reference  to  him  (e.  g.,  "  Philosophy  of  History,"  pp.  7,  27,  94,  101, 
104,  128,  129),  but  actually  goes  out  of  his  way  to  accuse  him  of  unfairness 
and  dishonesty  in  his  account  of  Bossuet.  Mr.  Flint's  accusation  is  this : 
that  it  is  untrue  that  Bossuet  neglected  the  Mohammedans,  or  overrated 
Martin  of  Tours ;  and  he  maintains  that  the  Jewish  nation  is  the  most  re- 
markable in  antiquity.  Now,  in  the  first  place,  though  Bossuet  does  say 
that  he  has  deferred  all  consideration  of  Mohammed  for  his  subsequent 
work,  yet  it  is  indisputable  that  he  has  written  a  scheme  of  what  he  con- 
siders the  "history  of  civilization  without  any  mention  of  Mohammedan 
learning.  Mr.  Flint  says  Bossuet  did  not  profess  to  write  a  history  of  civili- 
zation. I  answer,  then,  what  is  the  meaning  of  "  je  reprendrai  en  particu- 
lier,  avec  les  reflexions  necessaires,  premierement  ceux  qui  nous  font  en- 
tendre la  duree  perpe"tuelle  de  la  religion,  et  enfin  ceux  qui  nous  decouvrent 
les  causes  des  grands  changcmenis  arrives  dans  ks  empires "?  He  certainly 
puts  religion  first ;  but  as  certainly  professes  to  treat  of  the  causes  of  politi- 
cal and  social  changes.  I  doubt,  moreover,  that,  even  if  he  had  written  the 
continuation  he  proposed,  from  the  time  of  Charlemagne  to  Louis  XIV., 
which  "  vous  decouvrira  les  causes  des  prodigieux  succes  de  Mahomet  et  de 
ses  successeurs,"  he  would  have  done  more  than  give  some  account  of  the 
Crusades.  It  is  indisputable,  again,  that  Bossuet,  when  he  does  mention 
Mahomet,  gives  a  very  clear  idea  of  what  he  considers  the  "  False  Prophet " 
had  to  do  with  civilization,  which  was  simply  to  inflict  a  great  evil  on  the 
Christian  religion.  Does  Professor  Flint  really  think  anything  further  en- 
tered into  Bossuet's  mind  ?  Again,  as  to  St.  Martin,  I  have  yet  to  learn  that 
an  author  is  to  be  blamed  because  he  cites  in  a  note  his  authority  for  the 
text.  "All  that  Bossuet  has  written  in  his  'Discours,'"  says  Professor 
Flint,  "  is  just  the  two  lines  which  Mr.  Buckle  quotes."  "Well,  and  what 
then  ?  Buckle  does  not  accuse  Bossuet  of  saying  more  than  he  has  quoted 
of  Martin  of  Tours.  What  he  does  say  is :  "  When  he  has  occasion  to  men- 
tion some  obscure  member  of  that  class  to  which  he  himself  belonged,  then 
it  is  that  he  scatters  his  praises  with  boundless  profusion."  But  Professor 
Flint  does  not  consider  that  to  say  of  an  ignorant  priest  who  is  now  de- 
servedly forgotten  that  his  "  unrivaled  actions  filled  the  universe  with  his 
fame,  both  during  his  lifetime  and  after  his  death,"  is  scattering  praise 
with  boundless  profusion ;  nor  does  he  mention  that  this  is  only  the  most 
striking  instance  among  many.  And,  lastly,  if  Professor  Flint  holds  the 
Jewish  nation  to  have  been  the  "  most  remarkable  in  antiquity,"  I  would 
ask  him  on  what  grounds?  They  were  ignorant,  and  were  obstinate,  as 
Buckle  says.  Their  morals,  their  learning,  and  their  laws  were  obtained 
from  their  neighbors.  Their  monotheism  was  perhaps  independently 


204  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AKD  WKITINGS. 

mankind,  and  not  in  the  doctrines  of  any  theology.  There- 
in lies  his  merit,  which  is  rather  a  negative  than  a  positive 
one. 

Montesquieu  was  the  first  comprehensively  to  treat  the 
phenomena  of  civilization  according  to  natural  laws.  There 
had  been  attempts  before  him,  and  especially  by  Bodin,  to 
connect  human  affairs  with  external  nature ;  but  these 
treatises  are  analogous  to  the  sensations  of  a  man  who  has 
lived  all  his  past  life  in  ignorance  at  home,  and  who  sud- 
denly finds  himself  in  a  foreign  country  where  every  cus- 
tom is  new  to  him.  He  can  not  think  himself  into  his 
subject.  So  Bodin,  the  ablest  of  Montesquieu's  predeces- 

evolved,  but  the  Buddhists,  at  least,  showed  a  contemporary  monotheism, 
and  it  is  probable  that  the  early  Assyrians  were  also  at  one  time  monotheis- 
tic. The  Jews  naturally  had  a  good  deal  of  influence  on  Christian  thought, 
but  certainly  not  so  much  as  Platonic,  Persian,  Buddhistic,  and  Egyptian 
theology.  But  the  subject  is  too  large  for  my  space.  I  will  merely  add 
that  both  Professor  Flint  and  M.  Mayer  have  read  Buckle  carelessly  if  they 
suppose  that  he  is  unjust  to  Bossuet  in  not  making  allowance  for  the  age  in 
which  he  lived.  Buckle  is  not  writing  a  biography  of  Bossuet  illustrated  by 
history,  but  a  history  illustrated  by  Bossuet.  His  narrowness  and  credulity 
are  solely  referred  to  as  an  illustration  of  the  fact  that  under  Louis  XIV. 
even  the  "  towering  genius  "  of  Bossuet  could  not  overcome  the  tendencies 
of  the  age.  "  In  no  instance,"  says  Buckle,  "  can  we  find  a  better  example 
of  this  reactionary  movement  than  in  the  case  of  Bossuet,  Bishop  of  Meaux. 
The  success,  and  indeed  the  mere  existence,  of  his  work  on  Universal  His- 
tory, becomes  from  this  point  of  view  highly  instructive.  Considered  by 
itself,  the  book  is  a  painful  exhibition  of  a  great  genius  cramped  by  a  su- 
perstitious age.  But,  considered  in  reference  to  the  time  in  which  it  ap- 
peared, it  is  invaluable  as  a  symptom  of  the  French  intellect,  since  it  proves 
that,  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  one  of  the  most  eminent 
men  in  one  of  the  first  countries  of  Europe  could  willingly  submit  to  a  pros- 
tration of  judgment,  and  could  display  a  blind  credulity,  of  which,  in  our 
day,  even  the  feeblest  minds  would  be  ashamed ;  and  that  this,  so  far  from 
causing  scandal,  or  bringing  a  rebuke  on  the  head  of  the  author,  was  re- 
ceived with  universal  and  unqualified  applause." — See  Buckle's  "  History  of 
Civilization  in  England,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  721-729 ;  Flint's  "  The  Philosophy  of 
History  in  France  and  Germany,"  pp.  89-92 ;  Mayr's  "  Die  Philosophische 
Geschichtsauffassung  der  Neuzeit,"  pp.  20,  21. 


MACHIAYELLI.  205 

sors,  wlio  had  been  accustomed  to  see  the  finger  of  God 
in  every  trifling  event,  suddenly  finds,  in  the  writings  of 
Plato,  Hippocrates,  Polybius,  and  other  ancient  authors, 
the  very  obvious  remark  that  the  customs  of  men  are 
adapted  to  the  climate  in  which  they  happen  to  dwell. 
He  attempts  to  graft  these  original  ideas  upon  those  amid 
which  he  had  grown  up,  and  necessarily  and  inevitably 
fails.  But  Montesquieu,  on  the  other  hand,  enjoyed  the 
immense  advantage  of  living  two  hundred  years  later  than 
Bodin.  He  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  truth  enun- 
ciated by  Machiavelli  and  Yico,  that  mankind  were  per- 
petually seeking  to  satisfy  their  wants;  that,  therefore, 
their  customs  and  laws  were  made  to  suit  these  wants,  or, 
in  other  words,  that  every  law  is  the  result  of  the  circum- 
stances by  which  its  makers  are  surrounded.  This  is  a 
discovery  which  had  never  been  anticipated,  and  for  which 
he  will  ever  live.  JSTor  is  his  conception  of  the  origin  of 
laws,  great  as  it  is,  his  only  merit,  for  he  also  was  the  first 
completely  to  separate  history  from  biography.  Yoltaire 
had  already  insisted  on  the  necessity  of  a  reformation  in 
the  manner  of  writing  history,  by  paying  more  attention 
to  the  history  of  the  people,  and  less  to  that  of  their  rulers, 
and  this  improvement,  as  Buckle  further  points  out,  "  was 
so  agreeable  to  the  spirit  of  the  time  that  it  was  generally 
and  quickly  adopted,  and  thus  became  an  indication  of 
those  democratic  tendencies  of  which  it  was,  in  reality,  a 
result.  It  is  not,  therefore,  surprising  that  Montesquieu 
should  have  taken  the  same  course,  even  before  the  move- 
ment had  been  clearly  declared,  since  he,  like  most  great 
thinkers,  was  a  representative  of  the  intellectual  condition, 
and  a  satisfier  of  the  intellectual  wants  in  which  he  lived. 


206  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

But  what  constitutes  the  peculiarity  of  Montesquieu  in 
this  matter  is,  that  with  him  a  contempt  for  those  details 
respecting  courts,  ministers,  and  princes,  in  which  ordinary 
compilers  take  great  delight,  was  accompanied  by  an  equal 
contempt  for  other  details  which  are  really  interesting 
because  they  concern  the  mental  habits  of  the  few  truly 
eminent  men  who,  from  time  to  time,  have  appeared  on 
the  stage  of  public  life.  This  was  because  Montesquieu 
perceived  that  though  these  things  are  very  interesting 
they  are  also  very  unimportant.  He  knew,  what  no  his- 
torian before  him  had  even  suspected,  that  in  the  great 
march  of  human  affairs  individual  peculiarities  count  for 
nothing,  and  that,  therefore,  the  historian  has  no  business 
with  them,  but  should  leave  them  to  the  biographer,  to 
whose  province  they  properly  belong.  The  consequence  is, 
that  not  only  does  he  treat  the  most  powerful  princes  with 
such  disregard  as  to  relate  the  reigns  of  six  emperors  in  two 
lines,  but  he  constantly  enforces  the  necessity,  even  in  the 
case  of  eminent  men,  of  subordinating  their  special  influ 
ence  to  the  more  general  influence  of  surrounding  society." 
"  In  his  work  on  the  '  Spirit  of  Laws,'  he  studies  the 
way  in  which  both  civil  and  political  legislation  of  a  people 
are  naturally  connected  with  their  climate,  soil,  and  food. 
It  is  true  that  in  this  vast  enterprise  he  almost  entirely 
failed ;  but  this  was  because  meteorology,  chemistry,  and 
physiology  were  still  too  backward  to  admit  of  such  an 
undertaking.  This,  however,  affects  the  value  of  his  con- 
clusions, not  of  his  method,"  which,  as  Buckle  proceeds  to 
point  out,  is  not  affected  by  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  his 
illustrations.  "  The  difficulty  is  not  to  discover  facts,  but 
to  discover  the  true  method  according  to  which  the  laws 


MONTESQUIEU.  207 

of  the  facts  may  be  ascertained.  In  this  Montesquieu  per- 
formed a  double  service,  since  he  not  only  enriched  history, 
but  also  strengthened  its  foundation.  He  enriched  his- 
tory by  incorporating  with  it  physical  inquiries,  and  he 
strengthened  history  by  separating  it  from  biography,  and 
thus  freeing  it  from  details  which  are  always  unimportant 
and  often  unauthentic.  And,  although  he  committed  the 
error  of  studying  the  influence  of  nature  over  men  consid- 
ered as  individuals,  rather  than  over  men  considered  as  an 
aggregate  society,  this  arose  principally  from  the  fact  that, 
in  his  time,  the  resources  necessary  for  the  more  compli- 
cated study  had  not  yet  been  created.  ...  He  failed  partly 
because  the  sciences  of  external  nature  were  too  backward, 
and  partly  because  those  other  branches  of  knowledge 
which  connect  nature  with  man  were  still  unformed."  " 

Montesquieu's  mistake  of  studying  the  influence  of 
nature  over  men  as  individuals  was  remedied  by  Kant, 
the  greatest  of  German  thinkers,  with  the  exception  of 
Goethe.  He  it  was  who  first  pointed  out  that,  in  a  large 
view  of  human  affairs,  free  will  can  be  left  out  of  account, 
and  necessity  take  its  place.  He  even  adduces  the  tables 
of  births,  deaths,  and  marriages  in  support  of  the  fact 
that  human  affairs  are  subject  to  natural  laws.14  He 
clearly  sees  that  history  is  governed  by  circumstances, 
and,  indeed,  has  anticipated  Laplace's  doctrine  of  necessity 
in  the  simile  of  human  progress  to  trees  in  forests  which 

13  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization  in  England,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  752-766. 

uKant:  "Idee  zu  einer  allgemeinen  Geschichte  in  weltbiirgerlicher 
Absicht" — "Was  man  sich  auch  in  metaphysischer  Absicht  fur  einen 
Begriff  von  der  'Freiheit  des  Willens'  machen  mag;  so  sind  doch  die 
Erscheinungen  desselben,  die  menschlichen  Handlungen,  ebensowohl,  als 
jede  andere  Naturbegebenheit,  nach  allgemeinen  Naturgesetzen  bestimmt." 
— "  Werke,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  293. 


208  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

can  only  grow  upward  because  their  companions  deter- 
mine their  growth."  He  points  out  that,  though  we  can 
trace  no  general  laws  of  civilization  in  individuals,  we  can 
see  a  tendency  in  the  mass,  which,  he  thinks,  is  to  express 
an  entity,  an  ideal  man  in  humanity,  brought  about,  not 
by  his  desire  to  do  this  or  that,  but  by  the  pressure  of 
circumstances  which  leave  but  one  course  open  to  him. 
Kant's  merit  is  to  have  perceived  that  the  force  of  cir- 
cumstance is  too  strong  for  free  will,  and  that  laws  may 
be  traced  in  the  conduct  of  the  mass  of  human  beings, 
which  are  invisible  in  the  individual.  Yet  he,  like  so 
many  others,  must  conceive  a  goal  toward  which  all  men 
are  striving.  It  is  this  assumed  necessity  for  an  aim  in 
civilization  beyond  the  present — even  in  the  remote  fu- 
ture— which  marks  how  little  the  true  laws  of  civilization 
have  as  yet  sunk  into  men's  minds,  a  badge  of  slavery  to 
the  old  idea  that  mankind  are  extra  to  the  rest  of  nature, 
and  not  subject  like  the  rest  of  the  universe  to  general 
laws.  Hence  it  is  that  so  many  reviewers  have  com- 
plained that  Buckle  has  left  civilization  undefined.  De- 
fine civilization  ?  As  well  might  we  attempt  to  define  the 
Deity,  or  think  it  necessary  that  He  should  be  defined 
before  the  laws  of  morals  could  successfully  be  investi- 
gated! When  will  mankind  cease  talking  of  humility 
and  be  really  humble?  When  will  they  allow  the  uni- 
verse to  be  something  more  than  a  mere  pedestal  for  their 
display  ?  When  will  they  admit  that  they  are  but  a  part 
of  a  grand  whole,  and  that,  perhaps,  not  the  apple  of  the 
eye  ?  No  one  thinks  it  necessary  to  look  for  a  summum 
lonum  in  mathematics,  chemistry,  or  geology,  and,  if  they 

15  Kant:  "Werke,"  vol.  iv.,  p.  299. 


KANT.  209 

do  look  wistfully  to  the  future  for  a  time  when  all  sci- 
ences shall  be  displayed,  they  know  they  do  but  dream, 
and  such  speculations  are  not  necessary  to  the  perfection 
of  any  science.  Why,  then,  should  it  be  so  difficult  to 
conceive  that  the  laws  of  history  may  satisfactorily  be 
studied  without  first  determining  whither  man's  steps  are 
tending  or  where  his  progress  shall  be  stopped  ? 

Kant,  however,  confined  his  speculations  rather  to  the 
political  side  of  progress  than  the  material,  and  this  is 
always  apt  to  lead  to  those  dangerous  assumptions  as  to 
imaginary  perfection  such  as  misled  St.  Simon,  Comte, 
and  others.  He  saw  that  history  might  be  predicted,  and, 
above  all,  saw  that  to  do  so  required  a  large  historical 
knowledge ;  and  hence,  though  he  failed  in  giving  a  fore- 
cast of  the  way  in  which  history  should  be  written,  he 
has  contributed  to  its  philosophy  important  and  original 
truths,  without  attempting  an  elaboration,  in  which  he 
certainly  would  have  failed. 

Finally  came  Buckle,  who,  with  a  precision  hitherto 
unknown,  has  pointed  out  the  real  laws  which  govern 
human  affairs.  He  is  the  first  to  have  raised  history  to 
a  science,  because  he  first  wrote  it  scientifically.  He 
pursues  the  same  method  as  scientific  workers  in  other 
branches  of  knowledge,  and  substantiates  his  researches 
in  the  same  way.  Here  there  is  no  groping  in  the  dark, 
no  ideas  thrown  out  of  which  the  author  does  not  know 
the  full  value,  no  hap-hazard  and  uncorroborated  state- 
ments. Everything  is  strictly  logical:  not  a  mere  logic 
of  words,  but  a  logic  of  facts.  Compare  him  with  whom 
you  will — compare  him  with  Comte — and  how  striking 
is  the  difference !  The  latter  may  be  challenged  at  every 

14 


210  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

step ;  the  former,  armed  from  top  to  toe,  is  invulnerable. 
They  were  contemporary,  and,  if  anything,  Comte,  with 
his  foreign  education,  to  whom  speculations  on  the  laws 
of  civilization  were  open  from  his  childhood,  had  the 
advantage  over  the  Engish  thinker,  to  whom  these  things 
must  be  new.  But  mark  the  difference.  The  great 
Frenchman,  sagacious,  quick,  and  extremely  self-confident, 
chooses  His  course  while  his  mind  is  yet  green  and  un- 
formed, and  deliberately  shuts  himself  off  from  all  further 
knowledge,  in  the  vain  hope  that  his  views  would  by  such 
means  be  more  logical ;  and  that,  since  he  would  not  hear 
conflicting  opinions,  neither  would  he  be  influenced  by 
wrong  ones.  Yain  hope !  He  only  succeeded  in  shutting 
out  those  views  which  might  have  corrected  and  broad- 
ened his  field  of  humanity.  There  is  hardly  a  note  to  his 
"  Physique  Sociale,"  never  a  confirmation  of  a  fact ;  and, 
having  adopted  the  three-stage  theory  from  his  predeces- 
sors, and  modified  it  to  truth,  he  treats  it  as  an  hotel- 
keeper  does  his  wine  labels,  which  he  considers  have  the 
power  of  changing  the  quality  of  the  wine.  Instead  of 
looking  upon  the  three  stages  as  mere  descriptions  of  an 
invariable  sequence  of  ideas,  he  makes  them  dynamical, 
and  refers  everything  to  their  action,  rather  than  to  the 
action  of  general  laws,  to  which  he  assigns  a  very  subor- 
dinate position. 

Buckle,  on  the  other  hand,  might  have  been  writing 
the  elements  of  Euclid,  as  far  as  his  method  is  concerned. 
In  his  proof  that  men  do  not  act  without  motives,  that 
these  motives  are  the  natural  result  of  their  circumstances, 
and  so  on  through  his  book,  he  proceeds  step  by  step, 
eliminating,  as  a  chemist  during  an  analysis,  law  after  law. 


HIS  ADMIRABLE  MERIT.  211 

He  then  begins  to  confirm  these  laws  by  pointing  out  how 
every  action  of  mankind  is  explained  by  them.  Though  he 
probably  has  not  connected  man  with  nature  <&s  intimately 
as  hereafter  he  will  be,18  he  did  connect  for  the  first  time 
all  the  known  sciences  with  history,  and  is,  therefore,  just 
as  much  the  founder  of  the  science  of  history,  in  the  true 
sense  of  the  word,  as  Adam  Smith  was  of  political  econ- 
omy. Both  had  predecessors  in  their  work,  and  both, 
unlike  their  predecessors,  left  the  foundation  of  their  sub- 
jects so  sound  and  sure  that,  though  they  may  be  added 
to,  the  foundation  itself  need  never  be  altered.  Much 
will  no  doubt  be  added  to  Buckle's  work,  as  much  has 
been  to  Adam  Smith's,  but  nothing  will  be  taken  away. 
He  has  left  the  main  part  unfinished,  but  it  will  have  to 
be  finished  in  the  way  he  has  indicated.  The  general 
laws,  not  merely  evolved  out  of  his  inner  consciousness, 
but  discovered  by  patient  investigation,  are  there.  Some, 
of  course,  were  known  before,  but  they  have  been  relieved 
of  their  superincumbent  mass  of  useless  matter,  so  as  to 
have  acquired  a  new,  an  increased,  and  a  far  more  general 
force.  Others,  and  some  of  the  most  important,  he  has 
enunciated  for  the  first  time :  such  as  the  dependency  of 
morals  upon  the  intellectual  state  of  the  people;"  the 
greater  value  of  popularization  of  knowledge  as  compared 

16  As,  for  instance,  in  the  probable  effects  of  astral  influences  on  mete- 
orology and  economical  affairs. 

17  Comte  certainly  pointed  out  that  moral  truths  are  useless  without 
some  civilization,  and  that  the  value  of  morality  depends  upon  the  way  in 
which  it  is  practiced  ("  Philosophic  Positive,"  v.,  416-419).     But  he  did  not 
see  that  moral  truths  are  stationary,  and  dependent  upon  the  state  of  intel- 
lectual knowledge  for  their  interpretation.     There  have,  besides,  been  many 
other  approaches ;  but  none  come  near  to  Buckle.     What  Condorcet  says, 
for  instance,  was  simply  to  show  how  small  is  the  power  of  the  Church 
when  not  backed  by  public  opinion. 


212  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

with  its  concentration  ;  and,  above  all,  lie  has  shown,  what 
Montesquieu  and  his  disciples  could  only  indicate,  the  im- 
possibility of  escape  from  general  laws ;  not  that  he  taught 
man  to  be  permanently  subject  to  them,  as  so  many  of 
Buckle's  reviewers  have  carelessly  conceived,  but  that  it 
is  useless  to  draw  off  the  water  of  a  dropsy  until  the  heart 
is  cured ;  it  is  useless  to  amend  the  proximate  agent  un- 
less the  higher  and  governing  power  is  altered. 

I  know  well  that  I  shall  be  accused  of  the  common 
fault  of  the  biographer,  that  I  have  gazed  upon  the  bright- 
ness of  my  hero  until  I  can  see  naught  else.  And  truly 
there  is  so  much  of  goodness  and  greatness  in  mankind 
that  the  character  of  any  one  who  towers  above  the  rest 
must  necessarily  and  honestly  be  most  worthy  to  him  who 
studies  it  most.  To  others,  his  light  is  obscured  by  the 
multitude  of  other  lights ;  in  some  cases  the  nearer  appear 
to  the  careless  observer  the  brightest ;  in  others,  he  may  as- 
cribe mysterious  magnitude  to  the  distant  twinkle  which 
has  shone  from  time  long  gone  through  all  the  time  ensu- 
ing. I  can  not  say.  My  judgment  may  be  affected  as  the 
judgments  of  others  have  been  before  now.  But,  looking 
at  those  things  on  which  our  judgment  should  be  based, 
it  does  seem  to  me  that  reason,  at  least  as  much  as  affec- 
tion, has  governed  me  in  my  estimation.  Consider  his 
youth,  his  delicate  state  of  health,  his  self-education,  the 
enormous  drudgery  he  went  through,  and  vast  amount  of 
reading  he  achieved ;  his  self-denial,  his  love  of  truth,  his 
kindness  to  others,  his  charity  and  warmth  of  heart. 
These  raise  him  personally  above  the  average  of  men. 
Consider,  again,  the  breadth  and  depth  of  his  speculations, 
his  wonderful  memory  and  vast  power  of  assimilation, 


HIS  PLACE  IN  HISTORY.  213 

which  gave  him  in  every  book  he  read  a  new  soldier  in 
his  army  of  truth ;  an  army  in  which  every  man  was  effec- 
tive, because  Buckle  knew  how  to  use  him,  Tjr-hile  another 
would  have  been  simply  confused,  each  individual  would 
have  impeded  the  other,  and  the  greater  the  army  the 
more  hopelessly  would  theyjiav-e-  been  clubbed.  This 
gift  of  generalship,  and  the  still  higher  and  rarer  gift  of 
generalization  which  Buckle  possessed  in  so  eminent  a 
degree,  when  found  together  with  that  quality  which  is 
best  defined  as  strong  common  sense,  are  so  rare  and  valu- 
able that  we  can  not  choose  but  allow  him  greatness  who 
possesses  them.  It  is  proved  when  a  man  of  small  for- 
tune, without  assistance  from  friends,  is  suddenly  sought 
after  and  caressed  by  all  that  is  best  in  his  native  country, 
his  fame  spreads  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  his 
name  long  after  his  death  constantly  appearing  in  the 
literature  of  the  day,  and  his  works,  translated  into  the 
chief  European  languages,  continually  being  reprinted, 
and  creating  a  literature  of  their  own. 

And  these  works,  what  are  they  ?    But  a  fragment  of 
a  fragment. 


CHAPTEE  Y. 

Election  to  the  Athenaeum— To  the  Political  Economy  Club— Lecture  at  the 
Koyal  Institution — Success  and  Sorrow — Letters — Volume  II. — Anticipa- 
tion of  Death— Mill's  "  Liberty  "—The  Eights  of  Women— Death  of  Mrs. 
Buckle— Grief  of  her  Son— Pooley's  Case— "Letter  to  a  Gentleman"— 
Illness— Stay  at  Blackheath— Kindness  to  Children— Utilitarianism  and 
Morals — Death  of  his  Nephew — Stay  at  Carshalton — Further  Illness. 

THE  full  recognition  by  society  in  London  of  the  value 
of  Buckle's  work  had  hardly  time  to  show  itself  before  its 
ebb.  But  with  the  returning  flood  at  the  beginning  of 
1858  the  tide  of  honors  began  rapidly  to  rise.  Having 
been  put  up  for  election  at  the  Athenaeum,  it  soon  became 
evident  that  this  election  would  meet  with  considerable 
opposition ;  the  clerical  element,  which  had  not  been  lov- 
ingly treated  in  the  "  History  of  Civilization,"  did  not  pro- 
pose to  return  good  for  evil,  but  would  do  their  utmost  to 
avenge  his  trespasses  against  their  profession,  and  prevent 
the  purity  of  their  club  from  being  spotted  by  the  mem- 
bership of  such  a  skeptic :  insomuch  that  Buckle  was  even 
advised  to  allow  himself  to  be  elected  by  the  committee 
rather  than  run  the  risk  of  failure,  which  his  friends,  nu- 
merous as  they  were,  believed  to  be  imminent.  But  this 
was  not  Buckle's  way.  Great  as  the  honor  of  election  by 
the  committee  is,  it  would  have  been  contrary  to  all  self- 
respect  to  shirk  the  battle.  His  friends  did  their  utmost ; 
and,  when  the  time  came,  it  became  clear  that  he  had  no- 


ELECTION  TO  THE  ATHENAEUM.  215 

thing  to  fear.  Some  there  were  who  knew  him,  many 
who  admired  his  book,  and  many  more  who  could  not 
brook  the  disgrace  which  the  action  of  a  mere*  cabal  sought 
to  bring  upon  the  club.  One  gentleman  told  an  active 
supporter  of  Buckle's  that  he  had  been  asked  to  go  down 
to  vote  against  him  "  because  of  his  religious  views."  "  If 
that  is  your  reason,"  he  replied,  "  I  shall  certainly  go  and 
vote — for  him."  Indeed,  so  invisible  had  the  opposition 
become  that  many  of  those  who  had  feared  it  most  began 
to  doubt  whether  it  had  ever  existed ;  yet  it  was  the  opin- 
ion of  a  member  of  no  mean  authority  that  the  party  had 
had  a  very  substantial  existence,  but  had  drawn  off  on  see- 
ing the  strong  general  manifestation  in  Buckle's  favor — 
probably  from  a  proper  respect  to  the  wishes  of  the  club, 
though  a  different  reason  has  been  assigned  for  it.1  It  is  fair 
to  say,  however,  that  the  greater  number  of  clergy  were 
in  his  favor,  and  in  the  result  he  was  triumphantly  elected 
by  264  votes  to  9.  The  Political  Economy  Club  spontane- 
ously elected  him  a  member,2  and  finally  he  was  invited  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Institution  to  lecture  there. 

With  the  knowledge  that  we  have  since  the  publication 
of  his  "  Posthumous  Papers,"  we  see  how  he  thought  much 
on  the  "  Influence  of  women  on  the  progress  of  knowledge," 
and  would  naturally  choose  that  theme  for  his  lecture. 
"  Most  able  men  have  had  able  mothers,"  he  remarks  as  an 
accepted  axiom  in  his  mind ;  and  adds,  "  I  shall  hereafter 
from  a  vast  collection  of  evidence  prove  that  the  popular 

1  It  has  been  said,  with  how  much  truth  I  know  not,  that  the  majority 
gave  the  cabal  pretty  clearly  to  understand  that,  if  Buckle  were  pipped,  they 
would  do  the  same  for  every  clergyman  put  up. 

2  December  2,  1868  :  "  Dined  for  the  first  time  with  the  Political  Econ- 
omy Club,  which  elected  me  a  member  spontaneously." 


216  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

opinion  is  correct,  that  able  men  have  able  mothers.  Wo- 
men ought  to  educate  their  children,  and,  in  fact,  nearly 
always  do  so  after  a  fashion ;  for  education  is  not  books." 3 
He  felt  what  an  inestimable  benefit  the  atmosphere  of  a 
cultivated  mother  had  been  to  him,  and  he  wished  to  point 
out — perhaps  influenced  by  Miss  ShirrefFs  work — how 
mankind  is  harmed  by  neglect  of  women's  education. 

,  Expectation  was  on  tiptoe.  The  novelty,  the  great 
reputation  of  Buckle,  and  the  fact  that  he  had  never  spo- 
ken in  public  before,  excited  the  liveliest  curiosity.  He 
began  preparing  his  lecture  on  January  18th,  and  worked 
daily  at  it  up  to  the  21st  February,  writing  out  the  main 
points,  and  then  (as  he  calls  it)  studying  it,  or,  in  other 
words,  rehearsing.  He  also,  very  wisely,  attended  the  Fri- 
day-evening lectures  at  the  Royal  Institution,  which  he 
had  never  been  to  before,  in  order  that  he  might  accustom 
himself  to  the  theatre  and  the  audience.  On  the  9th  he 
began  writing  it  out  for  the  press,  as  Mr.  Parker  was  anx- 
ious to  publish  it  in  "  Fraser  " ;  but  broke  off,  writing  to 

Mr.  Parker : 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  10th  March,  1858. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  can  not  make  up  my  mind  to  write 
the  lecture,  because,  if  I  were  to  do  so,  I  am  sure  that  new 
views  or  expressions  would  open  themselves  to  me  in 
speaking,  and  I  should  deliver  something  quite  different 
from  what  I  had  written. 

"  But  I  intend  to  take  notes,  and,  as  I  have  a  pretty 
good  memory,  I  am  certain  that  with  their  aid  I  could 
write  out  the  lecture  in  two  days  after  it  was  delivered ; 
and,  as  you  appear  anxious  [to]  have  it,  I  should  not  object 

3  "  Posthumous  Works,"  vol.  i.,  pp.  325,  326. 


LECTUEE  AT  THE  ROYAL  INSTITUTION.          217 

to  do  so.  The  only  proviso  I  would  make  is,  that  I  do 
not  forfeit  the  copyright  in  it  by  your  printing  it  in  <  Fra- 
ser.'  Of  course  I  have  not  the  least  intention-,  at  present 
of  exercising  such  power,  and  I  need  hardly  say  that  I 
would  do  nothing  to  effect  the  sale  of  'Fraser,'  if  you 
print  the  lecture  there.  Only  as  a  principle,  I  have  de- 
termined never  to  surrender  the  copyright  in  whatever 
I  write. 

"  Have  you  succeeded  in  getting  a  ticket  for  the  19th  ? 
If  not,  I  will,  if  I  possibly  can,  send  you  one,  but  I  can  not 
promise  till  three  or  four  days  beforehand.  Please  let  me 
know  as  soon  as  you  can. 

"  If  the  lecture  is  printed  in  <  Fraser,'  could  I  have 
eight  or  ten  copies  struck  off  separately,  or  would  this  be 
inconvenient  or  unusual  ? " 

Numberless  applications  for  tickets  had  to  be  refused, 
and  even  Buckle  could  not  get  as  many  as  he  wanted.  As 
Mr.  Barlow  writes  to  him:  "It  is  very  hard  that  you 
should  be  limited  because  of  your  just  popularity.  But 
what  can  be  done  ?  I  can  not  expand  the  lecture-room, 
nor  prevent  members  from  exercising  their  right  to  in- 
dulge themselves  and  their  friends  with  a  high  intellectual 
gratification." 

On  the  evening  of  March  19th  the  doors  of  the  Royal 
Institution  were  opened  some  time  before  the  usual  hour 
to  admit  the  throng  of  fashionable  people  who  had  col- 
lected, and  by  the  usual  time  for  opening  the  theatre  was 
crammed  from  floor  to  ceiling  by  a  brilliant  and  excited 
audience,  of  which  ladies  formed  a  by  no  means  inconsid- 
erable portion.  As  the  hour  struck,  and  Mr.  Buckle 


218  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

walked  in,  tlie  loud  buzz  of  conversation  was  drowned  in 
a  burst  of  applause,  which  in  turn  gave  way,  as  the  lec- 
turer opened  his  lips,  to  a  silence  in  which  one  might 
have  heard  a  pin  drop.  Beginning  in  a  somewhat  low 
voice,  to  husband  his  power,  he  soon  warmed  up,  and 
spoke  on  with  great  energy  and  action  in  that  beautifully 
modulated  voice  so  well  known  to  his  friends,  without 
pause,  without  even  hesitation,  for  an  hour  and  forty  min- 
utes. He  had  written  the  heads  of  his  lecture  on  a  card, 
at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  Mr.  Barlow,  who  warned  him 
how  terrifying  he  would  find  the  fixed  gaze  of  nearly  a 
thousand  people,  and  how  probable  it  was  that  the  sight 
of  his  first  expectant  audience  would  unnerve  him;  but 
he  never  once  took  it  out  of  his  pocket.  This  thorough 
success  of  his  maiden  lecture  gave  Buckle  the  greatest 
pleasure,  which  he  did  not  attempt  to  conceal.  Faraday, 
Owen,  and  Murchison  severally  thanked  him  for  the 
great  treat  they  had  enjoyed ;  and  from  all  sides  he  re- 
ceived letters  of  congratulation  and  of  thanks. 

Notwithstanding  the  letter  to  Mr.  Parker,  he  had  al- 
ready written  the  lecture  out  before  it  was  delivered,  and 
immediately  after  he  set  to  revising  it.  On  March  22d  he 
writes  again  to  him  : 

"  I  have,  by  sitting  up  very  late  last  night  and  work- 
ing hard  to-day,  succeeded  in  writing  out  the  lecture.  I 
am  really  so  tired  that  I  can't  read  it  over,  and  I  send  it  to 
you  as  it  is,  feeling  quite  unequal  to  make  a  better  copy, 
as  I  had  intended.  You  will,  of  course,  let  me  see  the 
proof  with  the  MS. 

"  I  have  received  the  most  gratifying  letters  from  men 
of  influence  as  to  the  effect  produced  by  my  lecture — all 


LETTER  TO  MISS  SHIBREFF.  219 

regarding  it  as  an  epoch,  and  urging  me  to  have  it  pub- 
lished. From  this  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  de- 
mand will  be  considerable.  Possibly  you  may  think  it 
worth  while  to  print  a  hundred,  or  a  hundred  and  fifty, 
more  copies  of  '  Fraser '  than  usual.  I  do  not  mean  this 
in  regard  to  myself,  as  I  don't  intend  to  give  more  than 

four  or  five  copies  away. 

"  Yours  very  truly,  etc." 


"  23d  March. — I  was  unavoidably  prevented  from 
sending  this  last  night,  and  I  now  open  my  letter  to  add 
that,  since  writing  it,  I  have  received  such  a  quantity  of 
fresh  communications  as  proves  that  the  effect  produced  is 
far  greater." 

Immediately  after  the  publication  of  his  first  volume 
he  had  begun  to  work  at  the  second,  for  which  he  had 
already  got  the  greater  part  of  the  material  by  his  pre- 
vious reading.  Yet,  even  while  engaged  upon  this,  and 
also  on  the  preparation  of  his  lecture,  he  could  still  find 
time  to  help  his  friends.  We  have  already  seen  one  letter 
for  help  for  Captain  Woodhead ;  he  also  helps  Miss  Shir- 

reff: 

"HALSTEAD,  19th  June,  1857. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIEREFF  :  I  am  very  much  distressed  to 
hear  from  Mrs.  Bowyear  so  poor  an  account  of  your 
health ;  and  what  I  regret,  if  possible,  more  is,  that  your 
letter,  as  she  tells  me,  shows  symptoms  of  a  want  of  con- 
fidence and  a  disheartening  feeling  respecting  your  work, 
and  the  probability  of  bringing  what  you  are  engaged  on 
to  a  successful  issue.  What  this  is  I  have  experienced, 
though  happily  only  for  a  short  time,  and  at  long  inter- 
vals ;  but  when,  as  in  your  case,  it  is  aggravated  by  sharp 


220  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

physical  pain,  the  combination  must,  indeed,  be  hard  to 
bear.  The  best  way  for  you  to  console  yourself  is  to  re- 
flect that  the  mental  depression  is  mainly  caused  by  the 
state  of  the  body ;  that  it  will  pass  away ;  and  that  it  is 
essentially  unfounded,  because,  on  comparing  what  you 
can  do  with  what  others  have  done  in  your  field,  you  have 
every  right  to  feel  sanguine.  You  know  that  I  make  it 
the  business  of  my  life  to  study  what  pertains  to  the  intel- 
lect, and  I  may  therefore  venture  to  believe  that  on  such 
a  point  I  am  a  fair  judge  ;  and  I  do  honestly  and  deliber- 
ately say  that  what  you  can  and  will  do  must  be  valu- 
able— looking  at  the  amount  of  careful  thought  and  of 
natural  power  you  have  already  expended  on  the  subject 
of  education.  I  hope  you  know  me  too  well  to  hold  me 
capable  of  the  baseness  of  flattery ;  but,  firmly  as  I  am 
satisfied  of  the  truth  of  what  I  am  saying,  I  would  not  say 
it  except  that  I  fear  you  are  flagging  in  mind  as  well  as  in 
body,  and  my  regard  for  you  is  too  sincere  to  let  me  think 
this  without  doing  what  I  may  to  remedy  this  case — so 
far  as  the  want  of  confidence  is  concerned.  If  I  can  possi- 
bly help  you  in  any  way,  if  you  want  my  opinion  respect- 
ing any  educational  books  or  others  which  I  have  not 
read,  I  will  get  them,  read  them  carefully,  and  let  you 
know  what  I  think.  Pray  give  me  something  to  do  for 
you.  I  am  now  pretty  well,  my  time  is  my  own,  and  a 
few  weeks'  delay  in  preparing  my  second  volume  would 
be  as  nothing  compared  to  the  pleasure  of  furthering  your 
labors  and  cheering  you  in  the  prosecution  of  them.  Any 
MS.  you  have  prepared'  I  will  read  through  carefully,  and 
would  play  the  true  part  of  a  friend  in  criticising  it  closely 
and  severely.  But  «pray  keep  up  your  spirits,  and  remem- 


LETTER  TO  MISS  SHIRREFF.  221 

ber  that  the  subject  you  are  engaged  on  is  one  of  the 
noblest  that  could  possibly  be  selected ;  and  that  I  am  as 
certain  as  I  am  of  my  own  existence  that  you  will  succeed. 
"  I  am  enjoying  myself  here  very  much,  and,  instead 
of  the  two  or  three  days  I  meditated,  shall  remain  till  the 
beginning  of  next  week." 

But,  while  in  the  very  noontide  of  his  fame,  strong  in 
the  citadel  of  his  reputation,  honored,  feted,  and  feared, 
he  saw  only  too  clearly  that  happiness  would  nevermore 
be  his.  He  had  had  hardly  time  to  sip  the  cup  before  it 
was  dashed  from  his  lips.  As  he  turned  homeward  from 
those  gatherings  of  all  that  was  of  worth  in  London,  the 
contrast  was  great,  indeed,  of  what  was  and  might  have 
been.  Another's  loss  too  clearly  shadowed  forth  his  own : 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  5ih  August,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  I  am  shocked,  indeed,  at 
this  melancholy  event.  Poor  Mr.  Grey!  how  deeply  I 
feel  for  him — to  lose  his  mother  thus  suddenly — I  wish 
you  had  told  me  how  he  bears  it.  "What  anxiety,  too,  for 
Mrs.  Grey !  But  I  think  more  of  her  husband.  She  loses 
only  an  aunt ;  he,  a  mother.  Poor  Grey !  I  wrote  a  few 
lines  to  him  the  moment  I  received  your  letter.  I  much 
wish  I  could  have  seen  you  this  evening,  but  I  dine  at 

Mrs. 's,  with  little  heart,  however,  either  for  that  or 

anything  else.  I  am  broken-spirited,  and  care  for  nothing 
— but  I  would  not  put  off  my  engagement :  I  am  easily 
excited,  and  excitement  just  now  will  do  me  good. 

"  To-morrow  I  go  to  Herne  Bay.  My  mother  is  mis- 
erably feeble ;  but  the  threatening  symptoms  have  all  dis- 
appeared, and  they  assure  me  that  there  is  no  cause  for 


222  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

present  apprehension.  This  is  what  they  say— present  ap- 
prehension !  I  know  the  meaning  of  that,  and  I  see  the 
future  but  too  clearly." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  5th  August,  1857. 
"MY  DEAR  GREY:  Perhaps  I  ought  to  abstain  from 
intruding  on  your  grief,  while  sorrow  is  still  so  fresh ;  but 
we  have  been  for  some  time  on  such  intimate  terms  that  I 
can  not  resist  the  impulse  of  my  heart,  which  urges  me  to 
express  the  deep  and  earnest  sympathy  which  I  feel  for 
you  under  your  irreparable  calamity.  Not  that  I,  or  in- 
deed any  one,  can  offer  consolation ;  for  I  have  more  than 
once  undergone  in  anticipation  what  you  are  suffering  in 
reality,  and  it  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  consolation 
may  be  for  the  dead,  but  never  for  the  living.  Still,  you 
are  not,  as  I  should  be — you  have  not  lost  all,  you  do  not 
stand  alone  in  the  world.  At  all  events,  if  I  may  judge 
of  my  own  feelings  of  what  would  be  precious  to  me  had 
I  received  so  heavy  a  blow,  you  will  not  think  that,  in  say- 
ing how  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  I  sympathize  with 
you,  I  am  unduly  trespassing  on  what  is  sacred  to  yourself. 
You  will  rather  believe  that  I  write  to  you  because  my 
mind  is  overflowing,  and  because  it  seems  to  me  that  I 
have  need  to  tell  you  what  I  feel." 

"  HERNE  BAY,  llth  August,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAR  MRS.  GREY  :  Your  few  lines  with  Mr. 
Grey's  note  have  been  just  sent  to  me  from  Oxford  Ter- 
race ;  and,  glad  as  I  am  to  hear  of  you,  I  am  almost  sorry 
that  at  such  a  moment  he  thought  it  necessary  to  answer 
what  I  wrote,  as  I  am  fearful  of  ever  seeming  to  intrude  on 
the  thoughts  of  one  bowed  down  by  so  grievous  an  affliction. 


SUCCESS  AND  SORROW.  223 

"  I  left  town  early  on  Thursday  morning  for  Herne 
Bay,  and  found  my  mother  very  weak,  but  calm,  and  per- 
fectly happy.  Month  after  month  she  is  n<?w  gradually 
altering  for  the  worse — at  times  slightly  better,  but,  on  the 
whole,  perceptibly  losing  ground.  Her  mind  is  changed, 
even  since  I  was  here  last ;  *  she  is  unable  to  read,  she 
confuses  one  idea  with  another,  and  nothing  remains  of 
her,  as  she  once  was,  except  her  smile  and  the  exquisite 
tenderness  of  her  affections.  I  while  away  my  days  here 
doing  nothing,  and  caring  for  nothing — because  I  feel  that 
I  have  no  future. 

"  Dear  Mrs.  Grey,  I  did  not  intend  to  write  a  note  to 
make  you  feel  uncomfortable ;  but  my  mind  is  now  full 
of  one  idea,  and  I  can  not  help  dwelling  on  it.  When 
you  too  are  suffering,  it  seems  selfish  in  me;  but  you 
would  not  care  for  my  writing  if  I  did  not  speak  what  was 
within." 

"  HERNE  BAY,  5th  September,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAK  Miss  SHTRKEFF  :  You  will  no  doubt  have 
received  through  Mrs.  Grey  a  message  from  me.  To  that 
I  have  now  nothing  to  add,  except  that  all  remains  the 
same — the  mind  (at  least  the  intellect)  irretrievably  shat- 
tered ;  but  what  remains  is  apparently  safe  for  the  pres- 
ent ;  at  least,  there  is  no  reason  for  apprehension  beyond 
the  constant  uncertainty  incidental  to  such  a  state.  For 
the  future  I  shall  say  nothing  upon  this,  unless,  contrary 
to  all  expectation — I  had  almost  said  contrary  to  all  possi- 
bility— there  should  be  a  favorable  change ;  in  which  case 
you  shall  know  immediately. 

4  June  30th. 


224  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

"  Your  account  of  the  progress  of  your  own  work  is 
very  cheering.  Any  parts  of  it  that  you  wish  me  to  see 
in  MS.  I  will  gladly  read  and  give  my  very  best  attention 
to.  Do  not  scruple  about  this,  as  to  help  you  would  give 
me  real  pleasure  ;  and,  although  I  am  still  unable  to  write, 
I  am  as  equal  as  ever  to  reading  and  thinking.  If  you 
could  send  it  in  the  form  of  a  registered  letter^  I  would 
keep  it  with  my  own  papers  till  I  had  read  it,  and  return 
it  to  you  registered  /  in  which  case  there  is,  I  believe, 
hardly  an  instance  of  loss,  so  many  precautions  being 
taken.  I  am  very  anxious  that  you  should  execute  this 
work  really  well.  Much  will  depend  upon  it,  both  for 
your  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  important  subject  of 
education.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  suppose  that  I  should 
be  able  to  suggest  to  you  new  ideas  on  a  subject  you  have 
so  deeply  pondered,  but  possibly  something  might  occur 
to  me  (if  I  saw  the  whole  work)  as  to  the  arrangement  of 
the  topics  or  chapters ;  and  I  need  not  remind  you  how 
dependent  all  books  (and  particularly  one  like  yours)  are 
on  this  almost  mechanical  consideration. 

"Perhaps,  too,  other  little  points  might  be  brought 
out ;  at  all  events,  whatever  the  length  of  your  MS.  may 
be,  I  should  like  to  see  the  whole  of  it  (if  you  are  willing 
that  I  should  do  so)  when  and  how  you  think  advisable. 
As  soon  as  I  know  full  particulars  I  will  take  the  first 
opportunity  of  speaking  to  Parker,  and  I  believe  I  can 
answer  for  his  acceptance  of  what  I  shall  strongly,  but 
most  conscientiously,  recommend  to  him. 

"I  receive  from  all  quarters  the  most  favorable  ac- 
counts of  the  success  of  my  work — and,  strange  enough, 


LETTER  TO  MISS  SHIREEFF.  225 

even  at  Oxford  among  the  High-Church  party.  This 
passes  my  comprehension ;  but  the  '  Gentleman's  Maga- 
zine' is  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  Oxford  people; 
and  yet  see  what  they  say  of  me  in  the  number  for 
September  just  published." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  26th  October,  1857. 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss  SHERKEFF  :  I  received  your  letter  yes- 
terday, and  though  very  glad  to  hear  from  you,  the  plea- 
sure was  somewhat  lessened  by  the  account  you  give  of 
your  work.  "What !  Faint  at  the  eleventh  hour !  Im- 
possible !  Surely  you  do  not  mean  that  you  despair  about 
your  book  because  it  can  not  be  all  that  you  wish.  And 
as  to  your  other  objection,  that  your  system  of  education 
is  different  from  others,  and  that  therefore  you  will  not 
get  a  hearing,  I  do  not  believe  that  these  are  days  in 
which  a  view  of  education  (or  of  any  other  subject)  can  be 
suppressed  because  it  is  new.  Pray  go  on ;  then  let  me 
see  it ;  and  trust  the  rest  to  me,  to  Mr.  Parker,  and  to  the 
public.  Me  first !  and  the  public  last !  Observe  the 
vanity  of  the  man.  Seriously,  I  want  to  know  that  you 
are  advancing,  as  the  right  publishing  season  will  soon  be 
at  hand. 

"  I  am  better ;  and  able  to  work,  and  even  to  write  a 
little.  .  .  .  We  are  now  settled  in  town.  "We  have  never 
returned  home  so  early,  and  I  do  not  know  how  so  much 
of  London  will  agree  with  me.  For  my  mother  I  make 
no  doubt  it  is  the  best  plan,  as  we  dare  not  risk  for  her  the 
chance  of  taking  cold  in  traveling,  and  she  always  seems 
happier  here  than  anywhere  else.  .  .  . 

"  My  book  is  selling  extremely  well." 

15 


226  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  4th  February,  1858. 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  I  am  delighted.  You  have 
come  up  to  my  expectations,  and  that  is  saying  much.  I 
have  now  (2  P.  M.)  read  to  page  TO,  and  therefore  will  de- 
lay no  longer  telling  you  what  I  think.  "When  I  saw  you 
last  night  I  purposely  abstained  from  giving  you  an  opin- 
ion, though  I  saw  that  you  wanted  one.  I  abstained,  be- 
cause your  opening  did  not  satisfy  me,  and  does  not  quite 
satisfy  me  now ;  and  seeing  you  so  unwell  I  could  not  find 
it  in  my  heart  to  tell  you  so :  and  I  should  ill  repay  the 
confidence  you  place  in  me  if  I  were  to  flatter  you ;  there- 
fore I  said  nothing.  But  the  latter  half  of  Chapter  I.  and 
what  I  have  read  in  Chapter  II.  are  truly  admirable.  But 
the  opening  is  weak :  I  mean  weak,  not  in  conception,  but 
as  a  work  of  art.  I  intend  first  to  finish  the  whole ;  and 
then  carefully  read  again,  and,  if  necessary,  study  the  first 
chapter,  and  we  will  then  look  it  over.  It  is  possible  that 
I  may  change  my  mind ;  but  I  do  not  think  I  shall.  You 
may  rely  upon  my  giving  your  work  such  earnest  and  pa- 
tient attention  as  real  friendship  can  secure. 

"  Remember  that  I  am  only  discontented  with  a  small 
part ;  and  that  only  because  I  compare  you  with  yourself. 
I  would  have  called  to-day  to  tell  you  all  this,  but  am 
obliged  to  go  in  a  different  direction ;  and  as  I  dine  out  at 
a  distance  and  must  be  home  earlier  than  usual  to  dress." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  5th  February,  1858. 
"  DEAR  Miss   SHIRKEFF  :    .  .  .  Since  writing  to  you 
yesterday  I  have  read  about  20  more  pages,  all  good:  clear- 
ly arranged,  clearly  written,  and  sometimes  eloquent.     I 
have  no  alterations  to  suggest  beyond  a  few  trifling  matters 


LETTERS  TO  MISS  SHIRREFF.  227 

solely  in  regard  to  style.  If  you  have  written  the  remain- 
der in  the  same  way,  I  shall  venture  to  pronounce  it  much 
superior  to  anything  you  have  yet  done." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  15th  February,  1858. 

"  DEAE  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :  I  send  with  this  note  your 
first  four  chapters.  The  fifth  I  have  nearly  finished ;  but, 
as  I  am  reading  the  MS.  with  great  care,  I  go  on  slowly, 
especially  as  I  can  do  nothing  to  it  by  candle-light.  The 
style  is  on  the  whole  very  good /  indeed,  your  choice  of 
words  is  admirable;  and  the  only  fault  is  that  the  sen- 
tences are  too  long. 

"  Don't  be  alarmed  at  my  lengthy  list  of  corrections ;  I 
have  simply  done  for  your  MS.  precisely  what  I  would 
have  done  for  my  own.  Some  of  my  suggestions  you  will 
no  doubt  disapprove  of :  in  such  case,  let  them  stand  over 
till  we  meet. 

"  I  have  proposed  no  alteration  rashly ;  but  the  reason 
of  the  proposal  may  not  be  at  once  apparent. 

"  The  arrangement  is  good,  clear,  and  symmetrical.  I 
am  sorry  I  can't  find  more  fault,  it  is  so  pleasant  to  be 
spiteful — at  least,  I  enjoy  it." 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  22d  February,  1858. 

"  MY  DEAE  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :  I  return  Chapter  L,  which 
I  have  read  through  twice,  once  to-day  and  once  yesterday. 
I  have,  moreover,  very  carefully  thought  it  over,  and  al- 
though I  can  not  pretend  to  think  it  equal  to  the  other 
parts,  still  I  now  believe  that  it  had  better  not  be  altered, 
because  I  do  not  think  alteration  would  improve  it. 

"  My  impression  is  that  your  mind  is  better  calculated 


228  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

to  work  out  principles  deductively  (as  you  do  in  the  body 
of  the  book)  than  to  rise  to  those  principles  by  an  induc- 
tive and  historical  investigation,  such  as  that  contained  in 
Chapter  I. 

"  The  best  of  us  can  not  do  all  things  equally  well,  and 
I  only  dislike  Chapter  I.  when  I  compare  it  with  what  you 
do  in  other  matters.  If  I  were  to  compare  it  with  what 
other  writers  on  education  have  done,  I  should  not  have  a 
word  to  say  against  it.  Still,  I  clearly  see  that  the  chapter 
is  essential  to  what  follows :  therefore  it  must  stand,  and 
I  would  let  it  remain  as  it  is.  Another  remark  I  ought  in 
justice  to  make  is,  that  perhaps  I  am  too  harsh  toward 
Chapter  L,  because  to  me  the  whole  matter  seems  so  ob- 
vious that  I  tire  of  an  elaborate  proof  of  a  truism.  It  is 
very  difficult  for  me  to  forego  my  own  point  of  view,  and 
(as  it  were,  forgetting  my  knowledge)  put  myself  in  the 
point  of  view  of  the  majority  of  your  readers.  Yet  this 
is  what  I  ought  to  do  to  give  a  sound  judgment.  You 
must,  therefore,  take  what  I  have  said  with  this  allow- 
ance, and  not  affix  too  much  value  to  my  slight  censure, 
which  is,  after  all,  a  relative  censure  rather  than  an  abs.0- 
lute  one. 

"  To-morrow,  or  next  day  at  the  latest,  you  shall  have 
Chapters  V.,  YL,  and  YII. ;  and  the  other  two  I  hope  by 
the  end  of  the  week. 

"  I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  of  the  success  of  your 
work. 

"  Your  reasons  for  the  word  '  intellectual '  in  the  title- 
page  seem  satisfactory;  but  you  had  better  consult  Mr. 
Parker  as  to  this." 


LETTER  TO  MISS  SHIRREFF.  229 

' '  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  3d  March,  1858. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIKREFF  :  I  send  Koch,  three  volumes. 
Your  latter  chapters  I  like  quite  as  much  a«-  the  others. 
Some  parts  are  admirable,  but,  looking  at  the  book  practi- 
cally and  as  a  work  of  art,  I  am  of  opinion  that  it  is  rather 
too  long.  Still,  I  am  not  sure  about  this,  and  it  may 
well  be  that  I  am  wrong. 

"  Are  you  serious  in  thinking  to  decoy  me  into  writing 
a  dissertation  on  the  professional  employments  of  women  ? 
for  you  certainly  know  that  without  a  dissertation  it  would 
be  impossible  for  me  to  write  anything.  The  subject  is 
too  large,  and  any  opinion  I  might  give  would  require  to 
be  limited.  All  I  know  is  that  the  matter  is  one  of  ex- 
treme difficulty. 

"  The  Dr.  Smith,  editor  of  the  '  Dictionaries,'  is  Dr. 
William  Smith.  He  very  civilly  called  on  me  the  other 
day,  and  that's  how  I  know  the  name  so  pat. 

"  What  you  say  in  your  letter  about  Smyth's  lectures 
is  quite  true ;  and,  as  you  have  modified  the  praise,  there 
can  be  no  objection  to  it. 

"  I  do  heartily  rejoice  to  think  that  I  have  been  of  use 
to  you,  and  to  hear  you  say  so  gives  me  real  pleasure. 

"  Sincerely  yours,  etc. 

"  My  mother  is  quite  as  well  as  usual.  Dr.  Bright  was 
much  pleased  with  her  to-day." 

But  her  health,  nevertheless,  was  in  a  very  critical  state, 
and  in  July  he  staid  with  her  and  his  sister,  Mrs.  Allatt, 
at  St.  Helena  Cottage,  at  Tunbridge  Wells.  Besides 
looking  through  Miss  Shirreff's  MS.,  he  was  bringing  out 
a  second  edition  of  his  first  volume,  and  writing  his  second. 


230  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  TUNBRIDGE  WELLS,  ST.  HELENA  COTTAGE, 
"21slJuly,  1858. 

"My  DEAR  SiE5:  Thanks  for  the  check  for  £665  7«s., 
which  I  have  just  received  as  balance  due  for  my  first  edi- 
tion. The  account  is  quite  satisfactory,  and  the  charge 
for  advertising  very  moderate. 

"  "When  you  pay  the  £500  for  the  second  edition,  please 
to  pay  it  into  the  London  and  Westminster  Bank,  to  the 
account  of  my  cousin,  Henry  Buckle,  of  40  Westbourne 
Terrace. 

"The  fact  is  that,  my  income  consisting  entirely  of 
dividends,  which  I  draw  as  I  want  them,  I  have  no  bankers ; 
but  my  cousin,  Mr.  Henry  Buckle,  who  is  one  of  the  di- 
rectors of  the  "Westminster  Bank,  always  manages  for  me 
the  very  few  business  transactions  which  I  have.  I  shall 
write  to  him  by  to-day's  post  to  tell  him  that  you  will  pay 
£500  to  his  account  shortly,  but  I  am  not  quite  sure  what 
I  had  better  do  with  the  check  you  have  sent  me,  as  my 
name  must  be  put  on  the  back  of  it  before  it  is  presented, 
and  in  that  state  [if]  it  falls  into  improper  hands,  the  law 
is  so  uncertain  about  crossed  checks  that  I  might  be  run- 
ning some  risk.  Would  it  be  the  same  thing  to  you  if 
you  paid  the  two  sums  into  the  "Westminster  Bank  to  my 
cousin's  account,  leaving  me  either  to  destroy  the  check  or 
to  return  it  to  you  by  post,  if  it  is  quite  safe  to  transmit  it 
in  that  way,  which,  from  your  sending  it,  I  presume  to  be 
the  case  ? 

"  I  shall  take  no  notice  of  the  (  Quarterly.'  The  ani- 
mus is  too  evident  to  do  any  harm.  Besides,  there  is  really 
nothing  to  answer.  The  reviewer  has  had  a  year  to  ex- 

«  Mr.  Parker. 


LETTER  TO  MR.  PARKER.  231 

amine  my  notes  and  authorities,  and  neither  he  nor,  in- 
deed, any  of  my  opponents  have  even  accused  me  (much 
less  convicted  me)  of  incorrect  or  garbled  quotations.  As 
to  the  general  principles  at  issue,  they  can  never  be  dealt 
with  in  a  controversy  ;  and,  having  said  in  my  work  all 
that  I  can  say,  I  must  leave  men  to  decide  between  them 
and  the  opposite  views. 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  are  about  to  take  a  holi- 
day. I  hope  it  will  do  you  good.  I  am  working  closer 
and  more  successfully  than  I  have  been  able  to  do  for  the 
last  three  years." 


WELLS,  ST.  HELENA  COTTAGE, 
"27th  July,  1858. 

"  MY  DEAK  SIR  6  :  I  am  really  so  very  busy  on  '  Scot- 
land,' and  it  would  take  so  much  thought  as  well  as  time  to 
write  a  proper  review  of  Miss  ShirrefFs  book,  that  I  can 
not  undertake  it,  at  all  events  at  present.  I  saw  the 
'  Saturday  Keview,'  and  a  miserable  article  it  was,  written 
in  a  bad  spirit,  and  by  a  man  evidently  incapable  of  tak- 
ing a  grasp  of  the  subject.  I  am  inclined  to  agree  with 
you  that  there  a/re  rather  too  many  books  recommended, 
but  that  is  at  worst  only  an  error  of  detail,  and  a  work  of 
so  much  power  must  stand  or  fall  according  to  the  sound- 
ness or  unsoundness  of  its  general  principles.  Besides,  it  is 
a  mistake  on  the  right  side  ;  for  it  is  easier  for  a  parent  or 
governess  to  curtail  a  good  list  of  books  than  to  add  to  it. 

"  Thanks  about  the  check.  A  day  or  so  will  of  course 
not  be  important,  but  the  fact  is  that  I  wrote  last  Saturday 
giving  a  commission  to  buy  £1,000  of  this  New  Zealand 

6  To  the  same. 


232  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

Loan,  which  is  just  issued  and  guaranteed  by  government, 
and,  as  Mr.  Henry  Buckle  pays  for  it,  I  do  not  like  him  to 
be  without  funds.  "When  I  wrote  to  him  I  mentioned  that 
you  would  pay  £1,165  Is.  to  his  account.  I  have  had  a 
good  laugh  at  Daniel — some  people  are  so  funny. 

"  Sincerely  yours,  etc. 

"I  hope  you  do  not  take  it  ill  that  I  should  again 
decline  writing  a  review  of  Miss  ShirrefL  But  I  really 
find  that  I  have  more  to  do  than  I  expected ;  and  I  am 
determined  that,  if  possible,  my  second  volume  shall  not 
disgrace  the  first.  I  have  about  two  hundred  volumes  on 
Scotland  down  here  to  get  through." 

1  '59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  25th  September,  1858. 

"  DEAK  Miss  SHIKREFF  :  I  will  send  to  Chester  Street 
either  to-day  or  to-morrow  a  Dutch  work  in  two  volumes 
on  the  '  History  of  Manners,'  which  I  think  you  will  like. 
If  you  have  it  sent  down  to  Twickenham,  please  to  give 
particular  orders  about  the  packing,  as  I  value  it  very 
much ;  it  being  out  of  print  in  Holland,  and  entirely  un- 
known in  England.  It  will  give  you  a  fair  specimen  of 
those  curious  parts  of  Dutch  literature  of  which  your  in- 
dustry has  supplied  the  key.  I  am  truly  glad  to  hear  of 
your  progress.  .  .  . 

"  Your  book  is  selling  steadily,  but  of  course  slowly. 
At  this  time  of  the  year  it  is  much  for  a  book  to  sell  at  all. 

"  The  g  in  Dutch  is  always  guttural  even  at  the  begin- 
ning of  words. 

"...  I  am  remarkably  well,  and  able  to  work  with 
perfect  comfort  upward  of  eight  hours,  so  that  Yol.  II. 
is  happy  in  its  mind.  My  mother  sends  her  love.  We 


LETTER  TO  MISS  SHIRREFF.  233 

shall,  I  hope,  in  about  a  week  go  to  Brighton  for  two 
months. 

"  The  old  Dutch  spelling  (i.  e.,  of  seventeenth  century  or 
even  part  of  eighteenth)  is  more  like  the  present  Flemish. 
Now  the  spelling  is  nearly  always  the  same ;  and  your  eye 
will  soon  get  used  to  the  very  slight  difference — the  prin- 
cipal being  ij  for  y." 

"BRIGHTON,  13th  October,  1858. 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  After  your  truly  kind  let- 
ter I  can  not  delay  letting  you  know  that  we  arrived  here 
Monday,7  and  that  my  mother  was  less  fatigued  by  the 
journey  than  I  had  expected;  and,  as  coming  here  has 
done  no  harm,  the  hope  remains  of  its  doing  good.  But  I 
am  not  sanguine ;  I  have  been  too  often  and  too  cruelly 
disappointed  for  that. 

"  I  hope  you  will  like  the  Dutch  books.  There  is  a 
noble  field  open  there  for  anybody;  and  yet,  strange  to 
say,  no  Englishman  has  cultivated  it.  I  was  thinking  that 
a  life  of  Grotius  would  not  be  a  bad  enterprise.  He  has 
deservedly  a  great  name,  and  his  career  was  full  of  adven- 
ture. But  we  will  talk  of  this  when  we  meet,  and,  as  to 
the  practical  part  of  the  question,  I  should  like  to  hear 
what  Parker  says. 

"  You  had  better  get  from  the  London  Library  Davies's 
4  History  of  Holland,5  and  use  it  as  a  text-book,  i.  e.,  make 
systematic  notes  from  it,  so  as  to  thoroughly  master  the 
leading  events  in  Dutch  history.  I  would  also  recommend 
your  drawing  up  an  abstract  of  the  somewhat  scanty  notices 
of  Dutch  Literati  in  Hallam's  *  Literature ' ;  reading  each 
life  in  '  Biographic  Universelle.'  There  is  nothing  like 

*  October  llth. 


234  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

taking  a  general  survey  before  doing  any  one  thing.  If 
you  could  get  hold  of  Paquot,  '  Hist.  Lit.  des  Pays  Bas,5 
you  would  find  it  useful." 

"  October,  1858. 

"  DEAR  MRS.  BOWYEAR  :  .  .  .  .  For  the  last  three  weeks 
I  have  been  unable  to  write  a  single  line  of  my  ( History,' 
and  I  now  confine  myself  to  reading  and  thinking,  which 
I  can  do  as  well  as  ever,  though  I  am  too  unsettled  to  com- 
pose. My  mother  is  just  the  same  as  when  I  wrote  last, 
caring  for  nothing  but  seeing  me,  though  she  is  too  unwell 
to  converse.  .  .  . 

"  While  she  is  in  this  state,  nothing  could  induce  me 
to  leave  her,  even  for  a  day,  without  absolute  necessity. 
She  has  no  pleasure  left  except  that  of  knowing  that  I  am 
near  her,  and,  as  long  as  that  remains,  she  shall  never 
lose  it. 

"...  I  want  change,  for,  besides  my  anxiety,  I  am 
vexed,  and,  to  say  the  truth,  a  little  frightened  at  my  sud- 
den and  complete  inability  to  compose." 

' '  BRIGHTON,  5th  November,  1858. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  The  only  good  history  of  Hol- 
land in  Dutch  that  I  know  of  is  by  "Wagenaar,  with  Bilder- 
dyk's  continuation.  You  would  probably  not  read  the 
whole  of  it,  as  it  is  in  sixty-one  volumes — about  twice  the 
size  of  Sismondi,  'Hist,  des  Francais.'  You  will,  how- 
ever, have  to  use  it ;  and,  fortunately,  I  have  a  complete 
copy. 

"  I  don't  agree  as  to  the  circulating  libraries  being  the 
main  support  of  a  '  Life  of  Grotius.'  Such  a  biography,  if 
done  carefully,  would  be  very  valuable,  and  would  be  pur- 


LETTER  TO  MISS  SHIRREFF.  235 

chased  by  many  persons  for  their  own  libraries.  But  more 
of  this  anon.  I  have  at  home  some  valuable  materials  for 
you.  In  the  mean  time,  try  and  get  Burign^'s  '  Life  of 
Grotius '  (about  1T50),  written  in  French,  but  perhaps  the 
English  translation  may  be  easier  procured.  We  shall  be 
in  town,  I  hope,  the  first  week  in  December.  During  the 
last  ten  days  my  mother  seems  to  have  rallied  a  little,  but 
— I  can  not  tell. 

"  There  is  a  c  Life  of  Grotius '  by  Charles  Butler — very 
poor." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  28d  December,  1858. 

"MY  DEAR  Miss  SHIEEEFF:  .  .  .  Both  in  Dutch  and 
Spanish  there  are  many  openings  ;  and,  when  I  was  think- 
ing about  you  the  other  day,  it  occurred  to  me  how  much 
remained  to  be  done  for  the  early  geography  (fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries),  and  the  adventurous  lives  of  the 
explorers — men  half  geographers  and  half  missionaries. 
Above  all,  in  reading  Dutch,  remember  that  nearly  every- 
thing is  new  to  the  English  ;  and,  therefore,  take  copious 
and  precise  notes  of  all  curious  matters.  They  are  sure 
to  come  in  usefully. 

"  You  will  be  shocked  to  learn  that  Mr.  Petheram  died 
suddenly  a  few  days  ago.  As  soon  as  I  heard  of  it,  I 
thought  of  c  Self-Culture ' ;  and  I  made  every  necessary 
inquiry  yesterday  afternoon.  It  is  difficult  to  arrive  at  the 
truth ;  but,  unless  different  parties  have  deceived  me  or 
are  deceived  themselves,  you  are  quite  safe — i.  e.,  his  af- 
fairs are  not  left  embarrassed.  The  business  will  be  car- 
ried on  for  at  least  some  time.  You  must  take  this  infor- 
mation for  what  it  is  worth.  I  have  collected  it  from 
booksellers  whom  I  think  I  can  rely  upon.  Still,  you  had 


236  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

better  write  to  Mr.  Petheram  (his  son,  quite  a  youth,  has 
the  management  of  everything),  and  say  that  he  is  no 
doubt  aware  that  your  book  was  published  on  commission 
only ;  and  that,  as  you  suppose  the  business  will  not  be 
carried  on,  you  would  wish  the  remaining  copies  to  be 
returned  to  your  house.  This  I  advise  as  a  matter  of 
precaution.  The  burial  is  to  be  to-morrow ;  and  I  would 
write  on  Monday  morning. 

"Will  you  tell  Mrs.  Grey  that  Dr.  Addison  is  to  be 
here  to-day  at  four  o'clock  (do  you  know,  Dr.  Bright  died 
suddenly  ?),  and,  therefore,  I  can  not  call  upon  her,  as  she 
wished.  Neither  could  I  yesterday ;  for,  having  only  just 
heard  of  Mr.  Petheram' s  death,  I  was  engaged  the  greater 
part  of  the  day  in  collecting  such  information  as  would  be 
useful  to  you  to  know. 

"  Thanks,  indeed  !  real  warm  thanks  to  you  for  all  you 
say  and  feel. 

"  You  might  leave  a  few  copies  of  i  Self-Culture,'  in 
case  the  business  should  be  carried  on ;  but  I  would  ~by  all 
means  keep  the  larger  part  of  the  impression  in  your 
hands.  You  might  mention  (as  it  were,  casually)  that  you 
had  not  received  an  account  of  the  sale." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  5fh  January,  1859. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHTRKEFF  :  I  return  Simpkins's  letter. 
As  a  matter  of  equity  they  clearly  have  no  right  to  the 
extra  ten  per  cent.,  unless  they  take  the  trouble  off  your 
hands. 

"But  what  you  have  to  consider  is  the  expediency, 
not  the  justice ;  and  the  question  is,  Will  any  other  house 
equally  respectable  grant  you  more  favorable  terms  ? 


LETTER  TO  MRS.  GREY.  237 

This  I  rather  doubt,  because,  in  every  trade,  traders  re- 
fuse to  deal  with  private  persons  as  they  do  among  them- 
selves ;  and,  if  Simpkins  was  not  to  charge  the  ten  per 
cent.,  he  would  be  dealing  with  you  as  he  did  with  Pethe- 
ram. 

"  My  advice  is  to  accept  Simpkins' s  offer  on  condition 
that  he  will  take  one  hundred  copies  at  a  time,  and  bind 
them,  charging  you  as  Petheram  did  for  the  binding.  In 
regard  to  advertising,  I  think  you  had  better  keep  it  in 
your  own  hands,  and  then  you  are  sure  that  the  adver- 
tisements you  pay  for  are  inserted. 

"  If  you  are  reluctant  to  adopt  this  course,  I  will  most 
willingly  make  any  inquiries  that  you  desire  respecting 
other  publishers. 

"  Should  you  conclude  with  Simpkins,  let  it  be  clearly 
understood  that  the  title-page  remains  unaltered  (for  you 
need  not  be  put  to  that  expense),  and  that  you  are  not 
charged  for  insurance  of  stock,  or  for  anything  beyond  the 
binding  and  ten  per  cent.  You  will,  of  course,  keep  a 
copy  of  your  letters  to  them." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  6th  January,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAH  I!KS.  GKEY  :  I  will  call  upon  you  between 
3  and  3.30,  on  either  Monday  or  Tuesday,  whichever  will 
suit  you  best.  I  name  that  hour  because  I  intend  to  have 
a  long  talk  with  you,  and  because,  not  being  very  well,  I 
must  be  home  by  five  o'clock,  to  have  rest  and  a  cigar 
before  dinner. 

"I  shall  keep  your  MS.  till  I  see  you,  as  I  wish  to 
turn  the  subject  over  in  my  mind.  At  present  I  see  no 
difficulty  which  you  can  not  conquer.  Great  preliminary 


238  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

knowledge  jv-ill  -have  to  be  acquired,  but,  speaking  hastily, 
I  should  say  ten  or  twelve  years  would  suffice.  The 
main  thing  will  be  to  study  economically,  letting  no  time 
run  to  waste.  I  need  not  assure  you  that  all  that  I  know, 
and  have,  and  can,  will  be  at  your  disposition. 

"  I  liked  your  letter  very  much.  You  approach  such 
an  undertaking  in  the  manner  most  likely  to  succeed — 
i.  e.,  with  a  knowledge  of  its  real  difficulties." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  14th  Januwy,  1859. 

"DEAR  Miss  SHTRREFF:  As  you  don't  tell  me  what 
Messrs.  Simpkins  say  about  advertising,  I  can  not  give  an 
opinion  about  their  advice ;  but  my  own  impression  is  that 
you  had  better  confine  yourself  to  the  '  Times,'  consid- 
ering its  universal  circulation.  I  suspect  publishers  insert 
advertisements  in  the  smaller  periodicals  mainly  with  the 
view  of  keeping  up  their  connection. 

"  I  am  quite  distressed  to  hear  of  poor  Mrs.  Bowyear's 
illness.  One  feels  for  her  and  her  husband  in  every  way 
— as  it  were,  exiled  and  shut  out  from  all  their  friends. 
The  next  time  you  hear  from  Clifton,  do,  pray,  send  me  a 
few  lines  to  say  how  they  are  ;  and,  when  you  write  to 
Mrs.  Bowyear,  say  with  my  love  everything  that  is  kind, 
and  which,  in  truth,  I  really  feel.  If  I  were  differently 
situated,  I  should  be  tempted  to  run  down  for  a  couple  of 
days  to  the  hotel  at  Clifton,  to  try  and  cheer  them  both  up 
a  little.  As  soon  as  I  hear  that  Mrs.  Bowyear  is  tolerably 
well  again,  I  shall  write  to  her ;  but  I  don't  like  to  trouble 
her  husband  (as  I  did  before)  with  inquiries  which  he  has 
to  answer,  now  that  he  is  necessarily  much  occupied. 

"  I  have  not  seen  Bohn's  edition  of  Butler's  '  Analogy,' 


HIS  MOTHER'S  DEMISE  AT  HAND, 
but  it  can  not  be  so  good  as  the  old 

- 

thing  is  in  such  cases  always  added  by  inferior  men  under 
pretense  of  illustrating  or  correcting.  In  all*eally  great 
works,  the  best  editions  are  those  published  under  the 
author's  own  eye.  A  good  copy  of  Butler,  published  in 
the  middle  of  the  last  century,  can  be  bought  for  about 
2*.  6d." 

As  his  mother's  state  grew  worse  and  worse,  his  anxiety 
began  to  tell  upon  his  health,  and  he  was  quite  unable  to 
write.  But  his  nature  was  so  sanguine  that  he  never  could 
quite  realize  how  dangerous  was  the  case  and  how  immi- 
nent the  end.  For  the  last  six  months  of  her  life  she  was 
from  time  to  time  delirious,  but  such  was  her  strength  of 
mind  that  always  when  her  son  entered  the  room  she  be- 
came perfectly  rational.  "Well  might  he  say  with  Young : 

"  How  oft  I  gazed  prophetically  sad  ! 
How  oft  I  saw  her  dead  while  yet  in  smiles  ! 
In  smiles  she  sunk  her  grief  to  lessen  mine. 
She  spoke  me  comfort,  and  increased  my  pain. 
Like  powerful  armies  trenching  at  a  town, 
By  slow,  and  silent,  but  resistless  sap, 
In  his  pale  progress  gently  gaining  ground, 
Death  urged  his  deadly  siege  ;  in  spite  of  art, 
Of  all  the  balmy  blessings  nature  lends 
To  succor  frail  humanity — ." 

Sometimes,  indeed,  a  sentence  would  escape  her,  showing 
that  her  mind  was  wandering  a  little  ;  and  he  would  seize 
up  his  hat  and  rush  out  of  the  house,  unable  to  endure  it. 

As  some  relief  from  the  torment  of  his  thoughts,  he 
dined  out  frequently.  In  February  he  writes  to  Mrs. 
Bowyear :  "  I  am  still  immersed  in  Scotch  theology,  for  I 
am  more  and  mo«re  convinced  that  the  real  history  of  Scot- 


24:0  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

land  in  the  seventh  century  is  to  be  found  in  the  pulpit 
and  in  the  ecclesiastical  assemblies.  A  few  days  ago  I 
tried  to  compose,  and  with  better  success  than  previously. 
I  wrote  about  three  pages  that  morning,  and  this  has  given 
me  fresh  courage.  But  it  is  only  after  the  great  excite- 
ment of  conversation  that  I  can  write  in  the  morning. 
Nothing  now  stirs  me  but  talk.  Every  other  stimulus  has 
lost  its  power.  I  am  dining  out  a  good  deal,  and  hear 
much  of  my  own  success ;  but  it  moves  me  not.  Often 
would  I  exclaim  with  Hamlet,  '  They  fool  me  to  the  top 
of  my  bent.' " 

On  the  9th  December  he  had  written  to  Mr.  Parker 
offering  to  undertake  a  review  on  Mill's  "  Liberty,"  which 
he  felt  would  be  a  new  stimulus  to  him  :  "  If  Mr.  Mill's 
forthcoming  work  on  '  Liberty '  is  what  I  fully  contemplate 
it  will  be,  it  will  be  intimately  connected  with  some  views 
of  my  own  concerning  the  influence  of  legislation ;  and,  in 
such  case,  I  would  give  you  a  review  for  '  Fraser.'  But, 
as  I  write  nothing  hastily,  and  look  forward  to  reproducing 
some  day  my  miscellaneous  contributions  in  a  permanent 
form,  I  should  wish  (if  my  proposal  is  agreeable  to  you)  to 
stipulate  once  for  all  that  I  retain  the  copyright  of  what- 
ever I  send  to  '  Eraser.'  My  object  in  writing  so  soon  is 
that  I  may  have  leisure  to  meditate  the  subject  of  Mr. 
Mill's  book ;  and  I  would  beg  of  you  to  consider  this  let- 
ter as  strictly  confidential,  because,  if  the  work  on  <  Lib- 
erty '  is  different  to  what  I  expect,  I  shall  not  review  it. 
As  between  you  and  me  I  shall  require  no  engagement  re- 
specting the  copyright,  so  perfectly  am  I  satisfied  that  you 
could  do  nothing  but  what  was  not  only  just  but  liberal. 
But,  as  a  matter  of  business,  and  looking  at  the  uncertain- 


LETTER  TO  MR.  PARKER.  241 

ty  of  affairs,  I  would  ask  for  a  line  from  you  to  acknowl- 
edge that  I  retain  the  copyright  of  whatever  I  give  you 
for  f  Eraser.'  If  you  have  the  smallest  objection  to  this,  I 
shall  not  feel  at  all  hurt  by  your  frankly  saying  so.  What- 
ever I  publish  in  '  Eraser,'  or  elsewhere,  I  shall  sign  with 
my  name." 

Mill's  "  Liberty  "  did  fully  answer  his  expectations,  and 
he  began  to  prepare  his  notes  on  February  3d.  On  the 
9th  of  March  he  writes : 

"  MY  DEAE,  SIE  : 8  I  am  now  engaged  in  earnest  on  the 
'  Essay  on  Mill,'  and,  if  you  wish  to  announce  it,  you  can 
do  so  for  c  Eraser '  of  1st  of  May ;  as,  if  I  remain  pretty 
well,  it  will  be  ready  for  the  press  by  the  middle  of  April, 
at  the  latest.  I  am  afraid  you  must  make  up  your  mind 
for  a  long  article,  both  the  subject  and  the  man  being  of 
the  highest  importance.  Had  I  foreseen  the  labor  it  costs 
me,  I  confess  that  I  should  not  have  undertaken  it ;  as,  for 
the  last  month,  it  has  engrossed  my  thoughts.  However, 
I  shall  do  my  utmost  not  to  discredit  your  magazine. 

"  The  '  Saturday  Keviews '  I  wish  to  keep  until  I  have 
finished  my  article,  when  they  shall  be  returned  to  you. 

"  At  p.  55  of  Mill  <  On  Liberty,'  a  case  is  mentioned 
of  a  person  in  1857  being  ' grossly  insulted'  by  a  judge. 
Will  you  be  kind  enough  to  ascertain  for  me  where  I  can 
get  sprinted  account  of  this  in  detail  ?  Also  please  to  let 
me  have  the  new  volume  of  '  Transactions  of  Social  Sci- 
ence,' and  the  last  edition  of  Whately's  '  Logic,'  provided 
there  is  much  new  in  it,  since  the  sixth  edition,  which  I 
possess,  published  by  Fellowes,  1836.  I  see  that  you  pub- 

8  Mr.  Parker. 
16 


242  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

lish  Whately's  '  Logic '  in  two  different  forms ;  the  cheap- 
er one  will  do  for  me,  if  it  contains  the  same  matter  as  the 

larger  octavo. 

"  Yours  very  truly,  etc. 

"  I  should  be  glad  to  know  the  date  of  the  first  edition 
of  Mill's  <  Logic.' " 

He  also  writes  to  Mrs.  Grey : 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  18th  March,  1859. 

"  Mr  DEAR  MKS.  GKEY  :  I  have  delayed  answering  your 
note  until  I  had  time  to  consider  it ;  though,  before  you 
called  yesterday,  my  mind  was  so  much  shaken  about  your 
plan  that  I  had  meditated  writing  to  you. 

"  First  of  all,  in  regard  to  my  name  being  in  the  pro- 
spectus. I  have  long  felt  that  men,  perhaps  from  kind- 
heartedness,  or,  as  I  rather  believe,  from  want  of  firmness, 
think  too  lightly  of  giving  their  names  to  charitable  pro- 
posals, and  are  unwilling  to  refuse  what  seems  so  slight  a 
matter.  To  me,  however,  it  appears  that  no  man  should 
give  his  name  to  any  plan  unless  he  is  thoroughly  con- 
vinced of  its  propriety,  not  merely  because  he  thinks  it 
good.  "When  I  first  heard  of  this  scheme,  I  thought  it 
good ;  but  on  further  reflection  I  more  than  doubt  of  its 
propriety.  I  look  much  to  the  influence  of  women  for  the 
future  advance  of  society ;  but  I  am  convinced  that  any- 
thing which  makes  men  and  women  compete,  or  which  di- 
minishes in  the  slightest  degree  the  pecuniary  profits  of  a 
profession  by  throwing  part  of  those  profits  into  the  hands 
of  women,  will  tell  fearfully  against  women's  power.  At 
present  the  two  sexes  do  not  envy  each  other ;  but,  if  the 


THE  EIGHTS  OF  WOMEN.  943 

stronger  sex  should  envy  the  weaker,  it  must  happen  that 
the  weaker  will  go  the  wall. 

"  Again,  this  is  not  a  spontaneous  English'  movement ; 
it  is  of  American  origin,  and  in  America  women  have 
more  influence  than  in  any  other  country,  ancient  or  mod- 
ern. In  the  United  States,  women  being  so  respected,  an 
experiment  may  be  safe,  which  here  would  be  hazardous. 
The  institution  would  be  covered  with  ridicule;  and,  al- 
though this,  generally  speaking,  would  be  no  objection,  it 
is  in  the  highest  degree  objectionable  when  the  ridicule  is 
directed  by  men  against  the  plans  of  women.  That  you 
would  do  good,  I  make  no  doubt,  as  I  can  see  many  strong 
arguments  in  favor  of  such  a  hospital.  But  I  firmly  be- 
lieve that  the  large  results  would  be  mischievous. 

"  These  things  have  passed  through  my  mind  in  the 
last  few  days,  and  you  must  forgive  me,  dear  Mrs.  Grey, 
if  I  say  that,  on  account  of  these,  I  can  neither  give  my 
name,  nor  can  I,  as  I  at  first  promised,  ask  my  friends  to 
do  so. 

"  But,  although  I  disapprove  of  it,  I  admit  the  difficulty 
of  deciding  how  far  the  remote  mischief  will  outweigh 
the  present  good.  I  can  only  say,  therefore,  that  if  you 
still  persist  in  it,  and  if  you  find  that  more  money  will  be 
wanted,  I  will  give  to  it  any  donation  that  you  like  to 
name,  simply  because  I  wish  to  further  what  interests 
you ;  but  in  such  case  the  gift  must  be  anonymous  and 
through  you.  I  can  not  openly  countenance  what  I  be- 
lieve to  be  an  extremely  bold  experiment,  of  which  the 
evil  (to  my  mind  at  least)  is  greater  than  the  good.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  can  not  bear  to  appear  uncomplying  and 
ungracious  to  a  friend  whom  I  really  value ;  therefore  I 


244  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

do  most  heartily  offer  to  you  any  donation  you  like  or  think 
proper,  if  under  these  circumstances  you  are  willing  to 
accept  it. 

"  It  gives  me  great  pain  to  refuse  to  you  the  use  of  my 
name ;  but  I  can  honestly  say  that  I  am  acting  according 
to  the  best  of  my  judgment,  and  certainly  in  opposition  to 
my  first  impression." 

But  the  siege  was  now  fast  drawing  to  a  close,  and  he 

knew  it. 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  8th  March,  1859. 

"  MY  PEAK  MES.  WOODHEAD  :  I  almost  fear  from  your 
letter  that  you  did  not  receive  the  one  which  I  wrote  to 
you  some  seven  or  eight  weeks  since,  in  answer  to  yours, 
....  and  that  explains  my  silence.  If  you  knew  all,  you 
would  pity  me.  Certainly,  no  one  has  less  cause  for  ela- 
tion than  I  have.  What  can  I  care  about  fame,  when  I 
see  the  only  person  who  would  have  gloried  in  it  perishing 
before  my  eyes,  her  noble  faculties  wasting  away,  the  very 
power  of  expressing  her  affection  almost  gone  ?  And  this 
is  called  success  !  Rather  call  it  cruel  and  bitter  humilia- 
tion, and  failure  at  the  last  moment  of  all  my  cherished 
hopes. 

"  When  I  tell  you  that  for  three  months  I  have  not 
written  six  pages,  you  may  imagine  what  I  have  gone 
through  and  what  I  feel.  I  can  work,  and  think,  and  talk, 
as  of  old ;  but  the  creative  power  seems  to  have  gone  from 
me.  I  have  only  a  chapter  and  a  quarter  to  finish ;  when 
it  will  be  done  I  have  no  idea.  Nothing  does  me  good 
but  excitement,  and  the  excitement  I  relish  is  conversation. 
Burn  this  when  you  have  read  it  and  shown  it  to  your 
husband.  I  am  not  wont  to  say  thus  much,  but  I  am  not 


DEATH  OF  MRS.  BUCKLE.  245 

willing  that  friends  whom  I  care  for  should  be  misled  into 
thinking  me  changed. 

"My  mother  is  slowly  but  incessantly  degenerating, 
mind  and  body  both  going.  I  have  been  lately  reading 
with  intense  interest  John  Mill's  new  book  on  '  Liberty.' 
Pray  get  it,  and  study  it  well ;  it  is  full  of  wisdom.  Mr. 
Capel,  seeing  how  it  roused  me,  and  how  I  was  stagnating 
at  my  old  work,  suggested  to  me  to  write  a  review  of  it. 
This  I  have  begun  to  do,  and  am  feeling  more  pleasure  in 
it  than  in  anything  for  a  long  time.  If  I  complete  it,  you 
will  find  it  in  '  Fraser '  for  May. 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  your  husband  is  getting 
on  with  his  work.  Give  my  kind  love  to  him,  and  say 
that  he  has  only  to  write  to  me  about  any  difficulty  which 
he  thinks  I  can  clear  up;  and  even  without  that  I  am 
pleased  to  see  his  or  your  handwriting." 

The  end  was  not  far  off.  Mrs.  Buckle  was  so  much 
worse  on  March  31st  that  her  son  telegraphed  to  his  sister. 
On  April  1st  is  written  in  his  diary :  "  Mr.  Morgan  came, 
and  said  it  is  now  only  a  question  of  hours  with  my  darling 
Jenny.  ...  At  9.15  my  angel  mother  died  peacefully, 
without  pain." 

We  shall  draw  a  veil  over  the  last  sad  minutes,  the  last 
tender  pressure  of  the  trembling  hands,  the  last  fond  look 
of  the  fast-dimming  eyes,  the  frantic  grief  of  the  survivors. 
"  Consolation  may  be  for  the  dead,  but  never  for  the  liv- 
ing." He  had  lost  his  all,  and  stood  in  the  world  alone. 

'And,  when  the  last  sad  offices  were  rendered  to  the 
mother  he  had  loved  so  well,  and  he  sat  down  in  the  "  dull 
and  dreary  house,  once  so  full  of  light  and  love,"  the  first 


246  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

thing  he  wrote  was  his  proof  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
from  the  universality  of  the  affections  : 

"  Look  now  at  the  way  in  which  this  godlike  and  fun- 
damental principle  of  our  nature  acts.  As  long  as  we  are 
with  those  whom  we  love,  and  as  long  as  the  sense  of  se- 
curity is  unimpaired,  we  rejoice,  and  the  remote  conse- 
quences of  our  love  are  usually  forgotten.  Its  fears  and 
its  risks  are  unheeded.  But  when  the  dark  day  approaches, 
and  the  moment  of  sorrow  is  at  hand,  other  and  yet  essen- 
tial parts  of  our  affection  come  into  play.  And  if,  per- 
chance, the  struggle  has  been  long  and  arduous;  if  we 
have  been  tempted  to  cling  to  hope  when  hope  should 
have  been  abandoned,  so  much  the  more  are  we  at  the  last 
changed  and  humbled.  To  note  the  slow  but  inevitable 
march  of  disease,  to  watch  the  enemy  stealing  in  at  the 
gate,  to  see  the  strength  gradually  waning,  the  limbs  tot- 
tering more  and  more,  the  noble  faculties  dwindling  by 
degrees,  the  eye  paling  and  losing  its  luster,  the  tongue 
faltering  as  it  vainly  tries  to  utter  its  words  of  endearment, 
the  very  lips  hardly  able  to  smile  with  their  wonted  ten- 
derness— to  see  this,  is  hard  indeed  to  bear,  and  many  of 
the  strongest  natures  have  sunk  under  it.  But  when  even 
this  is  gone ;  when  the  very  signs  of  life  are  mute  ;  when 
the  last  faint  tie  is  severed,  and  there  lies  before  us  naught 
save  the  shell  and  husk  of  what  we  loved  too  well,  then 
truly,  if  we  believe  the  separation  were  final,  how  could 
we  stand  up  and  live  ? 8  We  have  staked  our  all  upon  a 

9  Mr.  Glennie,  in  his  "  Pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  76,  misreads  this  passage 
as  follows :  "  And  wonderful  it  seemed  to  me  that  any  one  acquainted  with 
the  facts  of  existence  could  dare  to  make  so  much  of  himself  as  to  found 
an  argument  for  the  truth  of  a  belief  on  his  '  inability  to  stand  up  and  live ' 
were  he  to  find  it  false ! " 


GRIEF  OF  HER  SON.  247 

single  cast,  and  lost  the  stake.  There,  where  we  have  gar- 
nered up  our  hearts,  and  where  our  treasure  is,  thieves 
break  in  and  spoil.  Methinks  that  in  that  ftioment  of 
desolation  the  best  of  us  would  succumb,  but  for  the  deep 
conviction  that  all  is  not  really  over ;  that  we  have  as  yet 
only  seen  a  part;  and  that  something  remains  behind. 
Something  behind;  something  which  the  eye  of  reason 
can  not  discern,  but  on  which  the  eye  of  affection  is  fixed. 
"What  is  that  which,  passing  over  us  like  a  shadow,  strains 
the  aching  vision  as  we  gaze  at  it  ?  Whence  comes  that 
sense  of  mysterious  companionship  in  the  midst  of  solitude ; 
that  ineffable  feeling  which  cheers  the  afflicted  ?  Why  is 
it  that  at  these  times  our  minds  are  thrown  back  on  them- 
selves, and,  being  so  thrown,  have  a  forecast  of  another 
and  a  higher  state  ?  If  this  be  a  delusion,  it  is  one  which 
the  affections  have  themselves  created,  and  we  must  be- 
lieve that  the  purest  and  noblest  elements  of  our  nature 
conspire  to  deceive  us.  So  surely  as  we  lose  what  we  love, 
so  surely  does  hope  mingle  with  grief.  .  .  .  And  of  all  the 
moral  sentiments  which  adorn  and  elevate  the  human  char- 
acter, the  instinct  of  affection  is  surely  the  most  lovely,  the 
most  powerful,  and  the  most  general.  Unless,  therefore, 
we  are  prepared  to  assert  that  this,  the  fairest  and  choicest 
of  our  possessions,  is  of  so  delusive  and  fraudulent  a  charac- 
ter that  its  dictates  are  not  to  be  trusted,  we  can  hardly 
avoid  the  conclusion  that,  inasmuch  as  they  are  the  same 
in  all  ages,  with  all  degrees  of  knowledge,  and  with  all 
varieties  of  religion,  they  bear  upon  their  surface  the  im- 
press of  truth,  and  are  at  once  the  conditions  and  conse- 
quence of  our  being." 

Alas  !  alas !  would  that  this  proof  were  as  clear  to  us 


24:8  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

as  to  his  grief -wrought  heart !  Bereaved  and  lonely  man 
that  he  was,  we  might  perchance  think  his  mind  was  at 
that  time  too  readily  open  to  such  transcendental  reason- 
ing ;  and  yet  it  was  no  new  idea  with  him,  for  he  had  al- 
ready enunciated  the  thought  in  his  first  volume.10  But, 
seeing  as  we  do  that,  though  the  universal  emotion  of  love 
is  a  possible  indication  of  immortality,  love  would  exist 
just  the  same  were  our  death  absolute — we  can  not  hold 
it  proof.  Indeed,  this  present  world  could  not  exist  with- 
out the  binding  principle  of  love,  without  which  every 
organized  being  would  be  swept  away  and  effaced  from 
the  earth.  It  is  too  plain  that  its  existence  is  as  necessary 
a  concomitant  of  our  own  as  the  air  we  breathe,  and  can 
not,  as  such,  be  held  a  proof  of  our  immortality. 

But  the  emotion  being  the  result  of  the  stored-up 
knowledge  of  our  lives — of  that  knowledge  which  is  not 
only  learned  from  books  and  learned  conversation,  but  from 
the  experience  of  the  feelings,  of  the  void  in  our  being,  of 
the  sympathies  and  laws  of  intercourse  of  mankind — these, 
indeed,  may  be  trusted  to  indicate  the  truth,  and  pioneer  the 
way  for  surer  generalizations  from  proven  facts.  As  Buckle 
himself  writes,"  "  The  emotions  are  as  much  a  part  of  us  as 
the  understanding ;  they  are  as  truthful ;  they  are  as  likely 
to  be  right.  Though  their  view  is  different  (from  that  of 
the  understanding),  it  is  not  capricious.  They  obey  fixed 

10  Talking  of  the  institution  of  priesthood,  he  says :  "  We  may,  if  need 
be,  remove  some  of  its  parts ;  but  we  would  not,  we  dare  not,  tamper  with 
those  great  religious  truths  which  are  altogether  independent  of  it,  truths 
which  comfort  the  mind  of  man,  raise -him  above  the  instincts  of  the  hour, 
and  infuse  into  him  those  lofty  aspirations  which,  revealing  to  him  his  own 
immortality,  are  the  measure  and  the  symptom  of  a  future  life." — "  History 
of  Civilization,"  vol.  L,  p.  695. 

11  "  History  of  Civilization,"  ii.,  p.  502. 


LETTER  TO  MRS.  GREY.  249 

laws ;  they  follow  an  orderly  and  uniform  course  ;  they  run 
in  sequences ;  they  have  their  logic  and  method  of  inference." 
He  kept  very  quiet  for  twelve  days  after  his  mother's 
death,  working  about  six  hours  a  day,  chiefly  in  finishing 
his  "  Essay  on  Mill."  On  April  13th,  having  heard  of  a 
severe  illness  in  Mrs.  Grey's  family,  he  visited  her,  "for  the 
first  time,"  he  writes,  "  since  my  darling  mother's  death." 
But  the  memories  of  his  mother  which  this  visit  called  up 
were  too  much  for  him,  and  he  could  not  repeat  it : 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE, 
["Between  13th  and  23d]  April,  1859. 

"  You  would  not  ask  me,  my  dear  friend,  if  you  knew 
what  my  visit  to  Cadogan  Place  cost  me.  I  can  not; 
everything  which  brings  up  a  former  association  unhinges 
me.  I  overrated  my  own  strength — I  deemed  myself 
more  than  I  am ;  do  not,  I  pray  you,  think  me  unkind. 
Perhaps  I  may  yet  see  you,  for  I  promised  Mrs.  Bowyear 
to  call  on  her  in  Chester  Street  if  I  could ;  but  that  must 
be  the  only  visit  I  make  before  I  leave  this  house,  where 
everything  is  hateful  to  me.  Do  not  be  uneasy  about  me ; 
I  am  quite  well ;  and,  within  such  limits  as  are  left  to  me, 
I  am  happy.  I  can  work  freely  and  well.  Beyond  this 
there  is  nothing  for  me  to  look  for,  except  the  deep  con- 
viction which  I  have  of  another  life,  and  which  makes  me 
feel  that  all  is  not  really  over." 

And,  under  like  circumstances,  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Bow- 
year,  after  his  visit : 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  April,  1859. 

"...  I  can  not,  my  dear  friend,  come  to  you,  for 
there  is  a  mass  of  business  to  finish,  and  which  would  be 


250  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

at  a  standstill  were  I  to  leave  town.  I  have  promised  my 
aunt  that  I  will  visit  her  before  I  go  elsewhere ;  and  I 
could  not,  at  such  a  moment,  find  it  in  my  heart  to  dis- 
appoint her.  I  remain  quite  well ;  but  my  grief  increases 
as  association  after  association  rises  in  my  mind  and  tells 
me  what  I  have  lost.  One  thing  alone  I  cling  to — the 
deep  and  unalterable  conviction  that  the  end  is  not  yet 
come,  and  that  we  never  really  die.  But  it  is  a  separation 
for  half  a  life ;  and  the  most  sanguine  view  that  I  can  take 
is  that  I  have  a  probability  before  me  of  thirty  years  of 
fame,  of  power,  and  of  desolation."  .  .  . 

The  "Essay  on  Mill"  was  published  on  May  1,  1859, 
and  led  to  consequences  which  it  will  be  necessary  to  dwell 
upon,  as  they  relate  to  the  most  important  event  in  Buckle's 
public  life — his  accusation  of  Mr.  Justice  Coleridge.  In 
Mill's  "  Liberty,"  which  he  reviewed,  he  had  come  upon 
the  following  passage :  "  Penalties  for  opinion,  or  at  least 
for  its  expression,  still  exist  by  law ;  and  their  enforcement 
is  not,  even  in  these  times,  so  unexampled  as  to  make  it 
incredible  that  they  may  some  day  be  revived  in  full  force. 
In  the  year  1857,  at  the  summer  assizes  of  the  county  of 
Cornwall,  an  unfortunate  man,  said  to  be  of  unexception- 
able conduct  in  all  relations  of  life,  was  sentenced  to 
twenty-one  months'  imprisonment  for  uttering  and  writing 
on  a  gate  some  offensive  words  against  Christianity." 

"  It  was  with  the  greatest  astonishment,"  writes  Buckle, 
"  that  I  read  in  Mr.  Mill's  work  that  such  a  thing  had 
occurred  in  this  country,  at  one  of  our  assizes,  less  than 
two  years  ago.  Notwithstanding  my  knowledge  of  Mr. 
Mill's  accuracy,  I  thought  that,  in  this  instance,  he  must 


POOLEY'S  CASE.  251 

have  been  mistaken.  I  supposed  that  he  had  not  heard  all 
the  circumstances,  and  that  the  person  punished  had  been 
guilty  of  some  other  offense."  He,  accordingly/  carefully 
investigated  the  case,  and  read  all  the  reports  he  could 
find,  with  the  result  that  the  following  are  the  facts  of  the 
case,  as  stated  by  Buckle,  and  they  have  never  been  dis- 
puted :  "  In  the  summer  of  185T,  a  poor  man,  named 
Thomas  Pooley,  was  gaining  his  livelihood  as  a  common 
laborer  in  Liskeard,  in  Cornwall,  where  he  had  been  well 
known  for  several  years,  and  had  always  borne  a  high 
character  for  honesty,  industry,  and  sobriety.  His  habits 
were  so  eccentric  that  his  mind  was  justly  reputed  to  be 
disordered ;  and  an  accident  which  happened  to  him  about 
two  years  before  this  period  had  evidently  inflicted  some 
serious  injury,  as  since  then  his  demeanor  had  become 
more  strange  and  excitable.  Still,  he  was  not  only  per- 
fectly harmless,  but  was  a  very  useful  member  of  society, 
respected  by  his  neighbors,  and  loved  by  his  family,  for 
whom  he  toiled  with  a  zeal  rare  in  his  class,  or,  indeed,  in 
any  class.  Among  other  hallucinations,  he  believed  that 
the  earth  was  a  living  animal ;  and,  in  his  ordinary  employ- 
ment of  well-sinking,  he  avoided  digging  too  deeply,  lest 
he  should  penetrate  the  skin  of  the  earth,  and  wound  some 
vital  part.  He  also  imagined  that  if  he  hurt  the  earth  the 
tides  would  cease  to  flow,  and  that,  nothing  being  really 
mortal,  whenever  a  child  died  it  reappeared  at  the  next 
birth  in  the  same  family.  Holding  all  nature  to  be  ani- 
mated, he,  moreover,  fancied  that  this  was  in  some  way 
connected  with  the  potato-rot ;  and  in  the  wildness  of  his 
vagaries  he  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  if  the  ashes  of 
burned  Bibles  were  strewed  over  the  fields,  the  rot  would 


252  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AKD  WRITINGS. 

cease.  This  was  associated  in  liis  mind  with  a  foolish  dis- 
like of  the  Bible  itself,  and  an  hostility  against  Christian- 
ity ;  in  reference,  however,  to  which  he  could  hurt  no  one, 
as  not  only  was  he  very  ignorant,  but  his  neighbors,  re- 
garding him  as  crack-brained,  were  uninfluenced  by  him, 
though  in  the  other  relations  of  life  he  was  valued  and 
respected  by  his  employers,  and  indeed  by  all  who  were 
most  acquainted  with  his  disposition. 

"  This  singular  man,  who  was  known  by  the  additional 
peculiarity  of  wearing  a  long  beard,  wrote  upon  a  gate  a 
few  very  silly  words  expressive  of  his  opinion  respecting 
the  potato-rot  and  the  Bible,  and  also  of  his  hatred  of 
Christianity.  For  this,  as  well  as  for  using  language 
equally  absurd,  but  which  no  one  was  obliged  to  listen  to, 
and  which  certainly  could  influence  no  one,  a  clergyman 
in  the  neighborhood  lodged  an  information  against  him, 
and  caused  him  to  be  summoned  before  a  magistrate,  who 
was  likewise  a  clergyman.  The  magistrate,  instead  of 
pitying  him,  or  remonstrating  with  him,  committed  him 
for  trial,  and  sent  him  to  jail." 

Thomas  Pooley  was  brought  before  the  judge ;  there 
was  no  counsel  for  the  defense,  but  there  was  for  the  prose- 
cution. The  attorney  who  prosecuted  knew  well  all  the 
history  recounted  above,  with  the  exception  as  he  asserts 
that  he  was  ignorant  that  Pooley  was  deranged.  The 
spectators  and  reporters  noticed  the  incoherence  of  his 
speech,  his  restless  manner,  and  glaring  eye;  but  the 
judge  writes  in  an  official  letter,  "  There  was  not  the 
slightest  suggestion  made  to  me  of  his  being  other  than 
perfectly  sane ;  nor  was  there  anything  in  his  demeanor  at 
the  trial,  or  in  the  conduct  of  his  defense  by  himself, 


A  SIMILAR  CASE— WITH  A  DIFFERENCE.         253 

which  indicated  it."  The  result  was  that  Pooley  was  con- 
victed. 

Quite  recently  there  was  a  case  remarkably  similar :  A 
man  named  Sullivan  was  charged  with  annoying  the  in- 
habitants of  a  part  of  London  by  chalking  up  words  in 
public  places,  such  as  "  The  Power  of  Prayer."  He  had 
habitually  offended  in  this  way,  as  Pooley  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  doing  in  his  way.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  Sul- 
livan was  not  committed  for  trial,  much  less  punished 
with  twenty-one  months'  imprisonment.  The  magistrate 
told  him  "  he  had  no  right  to  chalk  up  any  words  on  pri- 
vate property.  .  .  .  He  ought  to  have  the  sense  to  see  he 
was  doing  more  harm  than  good  by  persistently  breaking 
the  law "  ;  and  the  man  was  discharged,  with  a  caution 
that  if  brought  up  again  he  would  be  fined.12  So  Pooley 
might  have  been  cautioned  and  discharged,  or  sentenced 
to  a  nominal  punishment ;  he  ought,  indeed,  never  to  have 
been  convicted.  But  he  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment 
for  one  year  and  nine  months — an  imprisonment  which 
he  soon  exchanged  for  the  madhouse. 

Such  a  case  was  indeed  likely  to  arouse  all  the  generous 
indignation  of  which  Buckle's  nature  was  capable.  Like 
Yoltaire,  he  preferred  the  heat  and  dust  of  the  combat  in 
the  cause  of  justice  and  freedom,  rather  than  to  consult 
merely  his  own  comfort,  and  remain  mute  and  quiet.  But 
he  only  did  once  what  Yoltaire  did  many  times.  Yol- 
taire stood  up  for  liberty  where  liberty  was  hardly  known. 
Buckle  stood  up  for  liberty  where,  indeed,  she  was  in  dan- 
ger of  being  driven  from  her  natural  abode.  Yoltaire 
saved  Sirven  and  La  Barre,  and  defended  the  reputations 

12  See  the  "  Pall  Mall  Gazette,"  March  16th,  1878. 


254  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

of  Galas,  De  Lally,  and  even  Byng,  an  alien  and  an  ene- 
my, simply  because  he  loved  freedom,  and  could  not  look 
quietly  on  the  perpetration  of  injustice.  For  this  he  has 
been  honored  and  revered ;  and  shall  we  deal  out  a  differ- 
ent measure  to  Buckle  ? 

That  the  conviction  was  unjust,  or,  at  least,  that  the 
punishment  was  monstrous,  the  free  pardon — that  ridicu- 
lous and  insulting  fiction  of  the  law  to  screen  itself  from 
an  acknowledgment  that  it  has  been  wrong — sufficiently 
proves.  As  for  the  judge,  his  friends  are  placed  in  the 
dilemma  of  either  acknowledging  that  he  committed  an 
injustice,  or  that  he  was  incapable ;  that  he  did  not  observe 
those  signs  of  lunacy  which  were  patent  even  to  the  re- 
porters ;  that  he  was  so  careless  to  sift  the  evidence 
against  an  undefended,  ignorant  man,  that  nothing  was 
brought  out  at  the  trial  concerning  Pooley's  hallucinations 
and  his  blameless  life.  It  is  no  excuse  for  the  late  Sir 
John  Coleridge,  as  the  "  Law  Magazine " I3  hints  that  it 
should  be,  that,  like  the  Inquisitors  of  Spain,  his  motives 
were  unimpeachable.  Their  excuse  was  ignorance ;  but 
no  man,  least  of  all  an  English  judge,  would  care  to  plead 
that  excuse  to-day.  Mill  himself  pointed  out  the  danger 
in  such  prosecutions  to  personal  liberty,  and  Buckle  saw 
and  attacked  it.  He  told  his  friend,  Mr.  Henriquez,  that 
"he  saw  no  guarantee  that  the  age  of  persecution  was 
passed  for  ever ;  and  could  quite  conceive  that,  in  times  of 
great  civil  commotion,  if  a  religious  party  got  the  upper 
hand,  persecution  would  be  recommended  and  acquiesced 
in.  Only  one  party,  indeed,  could  be  trusted  not  to  abuse 
power  and  never  to  persecute,  and  that  was  the  skeptics." 

13  For  August,  1859,  p.  280. 


BUCKLE'S  ENERGETIC  ATTACK.  255 

Buckle  attacked  the  judge,  because,  as  lie  justly  points 
out,  "  it  is  impossible  for  us  by  any  effort  of  abstract  rea- 
soning to  consider  oppression  apart  from  the^ppressor. 
We  may  abhor  a  speculative  principle,  and  yet  respect  him 
who  advocates  it.  This  distinction  between  the  opinion 
and  the  person  is,  however,  confined  to  the  intellectual 
world,  and  does  not  extend  to  the  practical.  Such  a  sepa- 
ration can  not  exist  in  regard  to  actual  deeds  of  cruelty." 
This  personal  attack  was,  however,  resented  by  most  of 
the  papers  of  the  day,  because  they  were  not  able  to  think 
themselves  into  the  position  of  the  poor  and  oppressed. 
They  could  see  the  position  of  the  judge,  but  not  the  full 
danger  of  intolerance  and  interference  with  liberty. 

"  The  circumstances,"  says  Buckle,  "  to  which  I  have 
directed  public  attention  were  not  sought  for  by  me.  I 
did  not  go  out  of  my  road  to  find  them.  I  had  never 
heard  of  the  case  of  Pooley  until  I  came  across  it  in  the 
book  which  I  was  reviewing.  As  it  had  fallen  in  my  way, 
I  thought  it  my  duty  first  to  investigate  it,  and  then  to 
expose  it.  In  exposing  it  I  denounced  the  principal  ac- 
tors, especially  him  who  gave  the  finishing  touch  to  the 
whole.  By  doing  so  I  have  incurred  the  hostility  of  his 
friends,  and  I  have,  moreover,  displeased  a  large  class  of 
persons  who  consider  that  an  English  judge  occupies  so 
elevated  a  position  that  he  ought  not  to  be  made  the  ob- 
ject of  a  personal  attack.  To  me,  however,  it  appears 
that  his  elevation  and  his  name,  and  the  pomp  and  the  dig- 
nity and  the  mighty  weight  of  that  office  which  he  held, 
are  among  the  circumstances  which  justify  the  course  I 
have  taken.  If  he  had  been  a  man  of  no  account,  it  would 
hardly  have  been  worth  while  for  me  to  pause,  in  the 


256  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

midst  of  my  solitary  labors,  that  I  might  turn  aside  and 
smite  him.  For  what  is  he  to  me  ?  Our  ways  of  life  and 
our  career  are  so  completely  different  that  between  us 
there  can  be  no  rivalry ;  and  the  motives  which  commonly 
induce  one  man  to  attack  another  can  have  no  place.  I 
can  not  envy  him,  for  I  see  nothing  to  envy.  Neither  can 
I  fear  him ;  nor  can  I  expect  to  derive  any  benefit  from 
hurting  him.  Unless,  therefore,  it  is  supposed  that  I  am 
actuated  by  a  spirit  of  pure,  naked,  and  motiveless  malig- 
nity, I  have  a  right  to  be  believed  when  I  say  that  in  this 
matter  my  sole  object  has  been  to  promote  the  great,  and, 
to  me,  the  sacred  cause  of  liberty  of  speech  and  of  publica- 
tion. This,  indeed,  lies  near  to  my  heart.  And  it  is  this 
alone  which  gives  to  the  present  case  its  real  importance, 
and  will  prevent  it  from  sinking  into  oblivion.  Yet  a  few 
years,  and  Sir  John  Coleridge  and  Thomas  Pooley  will  be 
numbered  with  the  dead.  But,  though  the  men  will  die,  the 
principles  which  they  represent  are  immortal.  The  pow- 
erful and  intolerant  judge,  seeking  to  stop  the  mouth  of  the 
poor  and  friendless  well-sinker,  is  but  the  type  of  a  far 
older  and  wider  struggle.  In  every  part  of  the  civilized 
world  the  same  contest  is  raging  ;  and  the  question  is  still 
undecided  whether  or  not  men  shall  say  what  they  like ; 
in  other  words,  whether  language  is  to  be  refuted  by  lan- 
guage, or  whether  it  is  to  be  refuted  by  force.  Disguise 
it  as  you  will,  this  is  the  real  issue.  In  this  great  warfare 
between  liberty  and  repression  Sir  John  Coleridge  has 
chosen  his  side,  and  I  have  chosen  mine.  But  he,  being 
armed  with  the  power  of  the  executive  government, 
has  been  able  to  carry  matters  with  a  high  hand,  and  to 
strengthen  his  party — not  indeed  by  arguments,  but  by  vio- 


LETTEE  TO  MR.   PARKER.  257 


lence.  Instead  of  refuting,  he  imprisons.  My  weapons 
are  of  another  kind,  and  shall  I  not  use  them  ?  Am  I  for 
ever  to  sit  by  in  silence  ?  Are  all  the  blows  ty>  be  dealt 
from  one  side,  and  none  from  the  other  ?  I  think  not.  I 
think  it  is  but  right  and  fitting  that  Sir  John  Coleridge, 
and  those  who  agree  with  him,  should  be  taught  that  lit- 
erature is  able  to  punish  as  well  as  to  persuade  ;  and  that 
she  never  exercises  her  high  vocation  with  greater  dignity 
than  when,  upholding  the  weak  against  the  strong,  she  lets 
the  world  see  that  she  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  but  will, 
if  need  be,  strike  at  the  highest  place,  and  humble  the 
proudest  name." 14 

Some  even  of  his  own  friends  were  shocked  by  the 
violence  of  his  language ;  but  the  following  letters  will 
explain  themselves  : 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  20th  April,  1859. 
"  MY  DEAR  SIE  : 16  There  are  so  many  corrections  in 
the  inclosed  proofs  that  I  must  see  another  revise,  which 
please  ~by  all  means  to  let  me  have  not  later  than  4  p.  M. 
to-morrow  (Thursday).  I  shall  remain  in  town  till  Friday 
afternoon,  in  order  to  finish  the  whole  ;  and  then  you  will 
only  have  to  send  to  Brighton  a  proof  of  the  last  three 
pages  and  the  Greek  notes.  I  send  herewith  the  Greek 
notes.  The  proofs  which  I  now  inclose  please  to  return 
to  me  on  Thursday,  with  the  revise.  The  headings  will,  I 
think,  do  very  well  as  you  have  put  them.  One  or  two  of 
your  words  in  the  proof,  and  a  small  part  of  letter,  I  was 
unable  to  decipher ;  but,  in  truth,  I  am  half  stupid  with 
work  and  nervousness.  Sincerely  yours,  etc. 

14  "  Letter  to  a  Gentleman."  16  Mr.  Parker. 

17 


258  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

"  I  wish  you  would  send  copies  of  '  Fraser '  to  Mr. 
Sandars  and  to  Mr.  Fitz-James  Stephen,  with  my  kind 
regards — as  well  as  to  Mr.  Kingsley. 

"  I  can  not  alter  the  passages  about  Coleridge.  The 
mischief  he  has  done  is  a  thousand  times  greater  than  any 
punishment  which  I  can  inflict  on  him.  On  reading  over 
the  proof,  I  feel  fresh  indignation." 

Mr.  Charles  Kingsley  evidently  did  not  approve  of  the 
attack.  Buckle  answered  his  remonstrance,  but  only  a 
fragment  has  been  preserved : 

"...  You  suggest  about  asking  his  opinion.  What 
I  have  written  above  is  very  hurriedly,  amid  the  pressure 
of  many  matters,  and  it  is  flatly  put ;  but  the  result  has 
been  long  meditated.  Can  you  put  to  me  any  case  in  which 
you  would  punish  a  man  for  using  or  writing  words,  if 
such  words  could  not  produce  a  breach  of  the  peace  ?  I 
do  not  say  that  you  or  I  would  strike  or  collar  the  scoun- 
drel who  used  the  language — though,  maybe,  if  it  [had] 
been  used  before  one's  wife  or  daughter,  we  should  do  even 
that.  But  it  is  enough  if  a  reasonable  apprehension  exists 
that  the  peace  may  be  broken.  Whether  or  not  the  ap- 
prehension be  reasonable,  the  magistrate  can,  I  suppose,  be 
the  only  judge.  Do  think  this  over,  for  I  am  deeply  in- 
terested in  the  question,  and  try  if  you  can  put  a  case  fit 
for  punishment  which  my  definition  does  not  include. 
Perhaps  at  your  leisure  you  may  write  to  me  again.  .  .  . 
Much  do  I  hope  that  at  some  not  very  distant  time  we 
may  be  brought  into  closer  contact.  At  present  I  have  no 
pleasure  but  when  I  am  alone." 

To  Mr.  Parker  he  writes  again : 


LETTEK  TO  ME.  PARKER.  259 

"49  SUSSEX  SQUARE,  BRIGHTON,  llth  May,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  Sra :  Thanks  for  the  check  f or,j£34 — which 
I  have  just  received  for  my  essay  in  '  Fraser.' 

"I  do,  indeed,  regret  that  anything  I  have  written 
should  expose  you  to  annoyance ;  but  it  is  surely  unfair  to 
hold  you  responsible  for  an  article  signed  by  me.  Three 
weeks  ago  I  said,  what  I  now  repeat,  that  I  wished  you  to 
state  to  whoever  it  might  concern  that  you  suggested  my 
softening  the  expressions  respecting  Sir  John  Coleridge, 
and  that  I  refused  to  do  so.  As  I  said,  then,  I  would  far 
rather  have  withdrawn  the  whole  article  than  cancel  a 
single  word  I  had  written  on  a  transaction  respecting 
which  I  felt  so  strongly.  In  justice,  therefore,  to  your 
own  interests  you  ought  to  make  this  known,  and  I  hope 
you  will.  You  can  keep  this  letter,  and  show  it  to  who- 
ever you  like.  I  wrote  the  remarks  on  Sir  John  Coleridge 
deliberately.  I  carefully  considered  them  afterward.  I 
consulted  upon  them  a  friend  in  whose  judgment  I  repose 
great  confidence ;  and  now  that  I  read  them  again  in  print, 
I  have  nothing  to  withdraw  or  regret.  I  have  some  little 
knowledge  of  the  history  of  England,  and  I  do  deliberately 
say  that,  considering  all  the  circumstances  of  Pooley's  case, 
the  sentence  passed  by  Sir  J.  Coleridge  is  the  greatest 
crime  and  the  foulest  cruelty  which  has  been  perpetrated 
in  any  country  under  sanction  of  the  law  since  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Holding  this  opinion,  I  have  stated  it 
with  the  indignation  which  I  felt,  and  still  feel.  The  fact 
that  the  culprit  is  powerful  and  influential  produced  no 
effect,  except  to  make  me  apply  to  him  stronger  language 
than  I  would  have  done  had  he  been  weak  and  insignifi- 
cant. There  are,  unhappily,  innumerable  instances  of  re- 


260  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

ligious  intolerance  in  our  judicial  history;  but  in  such 
cases  the  age  was  intolerant,  and  public  opinion  sanctioned 
the  cruelty.  The  peculiarity  of  this  case  is  that  a  judge 
drives  a  poor  man  to  insanity,  and  beggars  his  family,  for  the 
sake  of  enforcing  a  persecuting  principle  with  which  men 
have  lost  their  former  sympathy.  He  goes  out  of  his  way ; 
he  runs  counter  to  the  liberal  tendencies  of  his  time ;  and 
in  doing  so  perpetrates  an  act  of  cruelty.  I  ask,  '  Is  that 
act  a  crime  ?  and,  if  so,  is  it  wrong  to  denounce  the  author 
of  it  as  a  criminal  ? '  Our  laws  do  not  call  it  a  crime ;  but 
God  forbid  that  we  should  form  our  notion  of  crime  ac- 
cording to  the  maxims  of  criminal  law.  As  to  motives, 
these  lie  out  of  our  reach,  and  no  human  eye  can  discern 
them.  But,  if  intolerance  and  oppression  are  crimes,  I  do 
not  see  how  the  act  of  Sir  J.  Coleridge  can  escape  that 
appellation. 

"  Whatever  any  one  may  write  against  me,  in  this  or 
any  other  matter,  pray  publish  it  in  '  Eraser,'  without  think- 
ing it  necessary  even  to  inform  me.  I  am  very  glad  that 
the  judge's  son  has  taken  it  up,  because  it  is  right  that 
both  sides  should  be  heard ;  and  I  shall  be  only  too  glad 
if  some  redeeming  circumstances  are  brought  out  to  make 
the  case  appear  less  nefarious.  This  is  the  first  personal 
attack  I  ever  made ;  and  I  can  conscientiously  say  that  I 
have  been  actuated  to  it  by  no  mean  or  unworthy  motive. 
In  my  judgment  Sir  J.  Coleridge  committed  a  great  and 
grievous  crime,  which  the  interests  of  toleration,  of  liberty, 
and  of  true  religion  required  to  be  punished,  but  which, 
being  committed  under  shelter  of  the  law,  could  only  be 
punished  by  a  man  of  letters  writing  in  a  free  country. 

"  Whatever  you  communicate  to  me  in  this  matter  I 


LETTER  TO  MISS  SHIRREFF.  261 

shall  consider  strictly  confidential ;  and,  as  I  hold  that  a 
great  principle  is  at  stake  (viz.,  how  far  an  author  is  justi- 
fied in  using  strong  language  to  express  strong  abhorrence), 
I  should  be  really  glad  to  hear  some  further  particulars. 
I  should  particularly  like  to  know  what  the  chief  objec- 
tions are — whether  as  to  the  epithets  of  '  criminal,'  etc.,  or 
whether  the  general  statement  is  deemed  unfair.  I  sup- 
pose that  no  attempt  will  be  made  to  impugn  the  facts  as 
I  have  put  them.  I  have  evidence  at  home  for  all  I  have 

said." 

"  BRIGHTON,  10th  May,  1859. 

"Mr  DEAR  Miss  SHTRREFF:  I  need  not  tell  you  how 
much  pleasure  your  truly  kind  letter  has  given  to  me,  for 
you  know  that  I  am  sensible  of  and  value  your  friendship. 
I  am  quite  well,  working  very  busily,  and  doing  all  in  my 
power  to  keep  myself  well.  More  than  this  is  impossi- 
ble either  for  me  or  for  any  one  else,  as  we  do  not  make 
events,  but  are  made  by  them. 

"  Neither  do  you  say  anything  about  your  own  work. 
Can  I  be  of  use  to  you  ?  I  suppose  you  can  now  read 
Dutch  with  tolerable  fluency,  and  you  ought  to  select  some 
one  subject.  I  have  already  mentioned  the  most  interest- 
ing, and  probably  most  important,  subject  in  Dutch  biog- 
raphy—Grotius.  You  and  Mrs.  Bowyear,  I  remember, 
laughed  at  me  for  this ;  but  that  does  not  prevent  it  being 
advisable  for  you  to  take  it  up,  as  I  don't  think  either  of 
you  much  understood  what  you  were  laughing  at.  Before 
I  go  to  the  north  of  Scotland  I  shall  be  in  town  for  a  day, 
and  would  send  to  you  any  Dutch  or  other  books  you 
needed. 


BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  I  am  glad  you  found  my  account  of  Mill's  c  Logic ' 
clear.  His  profound  views  respecting  coexistences,  and 
also  respecting  the  difference  between  induction  and  de- 
duction, are  so  very  far  in  advance  of  the  public  mind 
that  probably  I  have  done  some  service  in  popularizing 
them ;  as,  though  I  have  often  talked  to  men  on  these 
matters,  I  have  never  found  any  one  who  was  really  on  a 
level  with  the  actual  state  of  our  knowledge  of  method. 

"  What  you  say  about  my  notice  of  Justice  Coleridge 
does  a  little  surprise  me.  I  knew  at  the  time  that  most 
persons  would  think  I  had  shown  too  much  virulence ;  but 
I  believed  then,  and  believe  now,  that  in  this  case,  as  in 
other  cases,  when  I  have  taken  an  unpopular  view  (such, 
for  instance,  as  the  absence  of  dynamical  power  in  morals), 
those  who  object  to  my  treatment  have  not  taken  so  much 
pains  to  inform  themselves  as  I  have  done.  You  know 
that  I  have  no  personal  animosity  against  Coleridge ;  and 
yet  I  do  say  that,  to  the  best  of  my  judgment,  his  sentence 
on  Pooley  is  the  most  criminal  act  committed  by  any  Eng- 
lish judge  since  the  seventeenth  century.  Most  acts  of  re- 
ligious cruelty  have  been  in  compliance  with  the  temper 
of  the  age ;  but  here  we  have  a  man  going  out  of  his  way, 
and  running  counter  to  the  liberal  tendencies  of  the  time, 
in  order  to  gratify  that  malignant  passion — a  zeal  for  pro- 
tecting religion.  I  have  felt  all  I  have  written ;  and  I 
should  be  ashamed  of  myself  if,  on  such  a  subject,  and 
with  my  way  of  looking  at  affairs,  I  had  expressed  less 
warmth.  Of  course  I  may  be  wrong,  but  it  seemed  to 
me  that  the  influence,  the  name,  and  the  social  position  of 
the  judge,  made  it  the  more  necessary  to  be  uncompromis- 
ing, and  to  strike  a  blow  which  should  be  felt.  And  that 


LETTER  TO  MISS  SHIEEEFF.  263 

it  has  been  felt  the  letters  I  have  received  within  the  last 
few  days  have  proved.  I  believe  that  the  more  the  true 
principles  of  toleration  are  understood,  the  mdre  alive  will 
people  [learn]  to  be  to  the  magnitude  of  that  crime.  At 
all  events,  I  know  that,  even  if  I  had  used  still  stronger 
language,  I  should  only  have  written  what  a  powerful  and 
intelligent  minority  think.  And  I  have  yet  to  learn  that 
there  are  any  good  arguments  in  favor  of  a  man  concealing 
what  he  does  think.  I  never  have,  and  never  will,  attack 
a  man  for  speculative  opinions ;  but  when  he  translates 
those  opinions  into  acts,  and  in  so  doing  commits  cruelty, 
it  is  for  the  general  weal  that  he  should  be  attacked.  A 
poor,  ignorant,  half-witted  man  sentenced  to  be  imprisoned 
for  a  year  and  nine  months  for  writing  and  speaking  a  few 
words  against  the  Author  of  the  Christian  religion !  And 
when  I  express  only  a  part  of  the  loathing  and  abomina- 
tion with  which  I  regard  so  monstrous  an  act,  you,  my 
dear  friend,  c  regret  the  extreme  violence '  of  my  expres- 
sions. To  me  it  appears  that  your  doctrine  would  root  out 
indignation  from  our  vocabulary ;  for  if  such  an  act  is  not 
to  rouse  indignation,  what  is  ? 

"  With  all  honesty  do  I  say  that  I  attach  the  highest 
value  to  your  judgment,  and  therefore  it  is  that  I  should 
really  be  glad  if  you  would  let  me  know  why  you  dislike 
the  remarks  on  Coleridge.  On  my  part  there  is  no  per- 
sonal feeling,  no  rivalry,  no  jealousy ;  but  I  felt  great  in- 
dignation. I  believed  that  the  indignation  ought  to  be 
expressed ;  and  I  knew  that  many  who  agreed  with  me 
would  shrink  from  compromising  themselves,  and  incur- 
ring the  hostility  of  Coleridge's  numerous  and  powerful 
friends.  For  that  I  care  nothing ;  but  for  the  opinion  of 


264:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE   AND  WETTINGS. 

MY  friends  I  care  a  great  deal,  especially  on  a  matter  of 

this  sort." 

"BRIGHTON,  13th  May,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss  SHIEEEFF  :  I  am  very  glad  that  you 
have  written  so  fully  and  freely,  as,  indeed,  I  felt  little 
doubt  that  you  would  do.  But,  though  I  admit  the  force 
of  all  your  reasoning,  I  am  not  convinced  by  it,  sim- 
ply because  our  premises  are  different.  We  look  upon 
affairs  from  an  opposite  point  of  view,  and  therefore 
adopt  opposite  methods.  My  habits  of  mind  accustom  me 
to  consider  actions  with  regard  to  their  consequences ;  you 
are  more  inclined  to  consider  them  with  regard  to  their 
motives.  You,  therefore,  are  more  tender  to  individuals 
than  I  am,  particularly  if  you  think  them  sincere ;  and  you 
hold  that  moral  principles  do  hasten  the  improvement  of 
nations.  I  hold  that  they  do  not.  Erom  these  funda- 
mental differences  between  us,  it  inevitably  happens  that 
we  estimate  differently  such  an  act  as  the  sentence  on 
Pooley. 

"We  are  both  agreed  that  the  sentence  was  wrong; 
but  you  consider  that  the  judge,  not  having  bad  motives 
(but  who  can  penetrate  the  heart  and  discern  motives  ?), 
and  not  being  a  bad  man,  diminishes  the  criminality  of 
the  sentence,  and,  therefore,  should  have  prevented  me 
from  using  such  strong  language.  Now,  in  the  first  place, 
hardly  any  amount  of  evidence  would  induce  me  to  be- 
lieve that,  in  THIS  AGE,  a  judge  who  could  pass  such  a  sen- 
tence on  such  a  wretched  creature  as  Pooley  could  have 
either  a  good  heart  or  a  good  head.  He  may  be  clever  and 
emotional ;  an  accomplished  scholar,  a  good  administrator 
of  the  law  in  ordinary  cases  when  there  is  no  room  for 


LETTER  TO  MISS  SHIRREFF.  265 

prejudice ;  and  it  may  also  be  true  that,  when  he  passes 
sentence  of  death,  his  sensibility  is  (as  you  say  it  is)  so 
shocked  as  to  make  him  ill.  But  neither  this"' nor  a  hun- 
dred similar  facts  would  prove  as  much  of  his  moral  na- 
ture (putting  aside  his  intellectual)  as  his  treatment  of 
Pooley  proves  against  it.  The  largest  and  finest  natures 
do  not  reserve  their  sensibility  for  great  occasions,  but  ex- 
pend it  also  on  small  ones.  None  but  real  and  undoubted 
criminals  are  now  executed ;  and  I  do  not  see  that,  even 
in  a  moral  point  of  view,  it  is  anything  in  favor  of  a  judge 
that  he  is  made  ill  when  he  leaves  a  man  for  execution 
who  has  shown  himself  unfit  to  live,  and  whose  death  will 
benefit  society.  Such  feelings  proceed  as  often  from 
effeminacy  of  understanding  as  from  kindness  of  heart. 
My  analysis  may  be  wrong ;  but  I  think  that,  while  it  is 
quite  possible  for  a  bad-hearted  man  to  weep  when  he  has 
ordered  an  execution,  it  is  hardly  possible  for  a  good- 
hearted  man  to  have  sentenced  poor,  ignorant,  demented 
Pooley  to  twenty-one  months'  imprisonment. 

"  However,  I  would  prefer  resting  my  view  upon 
grounds  still  broader  than  these :  As  a  public  writer  (not  as 
a  private  or  practical  man)  I  estimate  actions  solely  accord- 
ing to  their  consequences.  The  consequence  of  this  sen- 
tence I  deem  far  more  pernicious  than  I  have  been  able  to 
state  in  my  *  Essay,'  because  I  could  not,  for  want  of 
space,  open  up  all  the  topics  connected  with  it.  Dealing, 
as  I  always  do,  with  the  interest  of  masses,  and  striving  to 
reach  the  highest  view  of  the  subject,  I  hold  that  when  an 
act  is  pernicious — when  it  is  done  in  the  teeth  of  the  lib- 
eral tendencies  of  the  time — when  the  punishment  far  ex- 
ceeds the  offense — when  it  is  not  only  cruel  to  the  victim, 


266  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

but  productive  of  evil  consequences  as  a  public  example— 
when  these  qualities  are  combined  in  a  single  transaction, 
I  call  that  transaction  a  great  crime,  and,  therefore,  the 
author  of  it  a  great  criminal. 

"Now,  in  commenting  upon  such  an  act,  how  should 
the  principal  actor  be  treated  ?  You  say  that  I  should  not 
have  used  language  which  one  'gentleman'  would  not 
have  employed  to  another  in  conversation.  Here  we  are 
altogether  at  issue.  My  object  was  not  merely  to  vindi- 
cate the  principle  of  toleration  (for  that,  to  all  persons  of 
competent  understanding,  was  done  before  I  was  born), 
but  to  punish  a  great  and  dangerous  criminal.  "Whether 
I  am  able  to  punish  is  another  question.  If  I  am  not  able, 
my  remarks  are  ridiculous  from  their  impotence,  and  I 
have  been  foolish  from  incapacity,  and  not  wrong  as  to  in- 
tention— that  is  to  say,  not  wrong  in  intention,  unless  my 
way  of  looking  at  affairs  is  wrong ;  and  this  is  the  very 
point  on  which  we  disagree,  and  which  your  letter  does 
not  touch  upon.  At  all  events,  starting  with  this  view 
(which  is  precisely  the  theory  of  method  which  underlies 
everything  I  have  ever  written),  it  formed  no  part  of  my 
plan  to  use  nice  and  dainty  words.  Instead  of  confining 
myself  to  writing  like  a  gentleman,  I  aimed  at  writing  like 
a  m<m.  I  intended  to  smite  Justice  Coleridge,  and  the 
anger  of  his  friends  is  one  of  many  proofs  that  I  have  suc- 
ceeded. Had  I,  or  had  I  not,  a  right  to  smite  him  ?  Is  it 
the  business  of  literature  to  chastise  as  well  as  to  persuade  ? 
I  think  it  is ;  and  I  follow  the  example  of  many  who  have 
done  the  greatest  good  and  left  the  greatest  names.  You 
would  have  me  expose  the  crime,  and  yet  spare  the  crim- 
inal. But  I  can  not  stop  at  the  act  of  oppression;  my 


LETTEE  TO  MISS  SHIREEFF.  267 

mind  goes  on  to  the  oppressor.  And  yet  you  say,  *  The 
personality  of  the  attack  is  the  only  thing  I  regret.'  Most 
truly  do  I  know  that  you  speak  out  of  the  very  fullness 
and  kindness  of  your  heart ;  and  I  value  more  than  I  can 
tell  you  a  frankness  which  proves  your  friendship,  if  I 
needed  new  proof.  But  I  can  not  conceal  from  you  that 
we  are  in  this  matter  as  asunder  as  the  two  poles.  As  an 
author,  I  will  always  say  what  I  think ;  and  when  an  act 
of  cruelty  comes  across  my  path,  perpetrated  by  a  pow- 
erful and  influential  man,  I  will  never  let  conventional 
and  '  gentlemanly '  considerations  restrain  the  indignation 
which  I  feel.  You  also  think  that  I  weaken  my  own  in- 
fluence and  reputation  by  making  such  an  attack ;  and  in 
that  respect  I  am  inclined  to  agree  with  you  in  part. 
Many  will  be  offended ;  but  it  is  not  the  verdict  of  London 
drawing-rooms  that  can  either  make  or  mar  a  man  who  has 
a  great  career  to  run,  and  a  consciousness  of  being  able  to 
run  it.  I  would  not  willingly  seem  arrogant,  but  I  think 
you  will  understand  me  when  I  say,  that  I  feel  that  within 
me  which  can  sweep  away  such  little  obstacles,  and  force 
people  to  hear  what  I  have  to  offer  them.  "Whether  I  am 
right  or  wrong  in  this  opinion,  next  year 16  will  probably 
determine.  Meanwhile  I  may  say  that  what  I  have  heard 
from  the  boldest  and  most  advanced  men  has  proved  that 
my  attack  upon  Justice  Coleridge  has  secured  for  me  the 
sympathy  of  those  whose  opinions  are  constantly  gaining 
ground,  and  are  in  the  van  of  their  age.  More  than  this  I 
could  never  have  expected.  And,  in  forming  your  final 
opinion  upon  what  I  have  done,  forgive  me  if  I  say  that 
you  should  not  try  me  by  a  standard  which  I  do  not  rec- 

16  When  vol.  ii.  of  the  "  History  of  Civilization  "  was  to  be  published. 


268  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

ognize.  My  views  as  to  the  propriety  of  a  liberty  of  ex- 
pression which  many  would  term  license  may  be  wrong, 
but  they  are  honestly  mine ;  I  act  honestly  upon  them ; 
and  I  think  that  the  few  friends  I  have  should  test  me  by 
them. 

"  I  am  deeply  interested  in  this  matter,  and  I  will  ask 
you  to  be  kind  enough  to  show  this  letter  to  Mrs.  Grey 
and  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bowyear,  and,  when  you  have  an  op- 
portunity, to  Mr.  Capel.  These  include  nearly  all  whom 
I  really  love,  and  who  I  believe  love  me — if,  indeed,  with 
my  now  ruined  and  shipwrecked  affections,  I  can  expect 
such  a  feeling.  I  wish  them  to  be  in  possession  of  my 
views  on  what  is  not  only  of  the  greatest  moment  to  me, 
but  involves  principles  which  lie  at  the  very  root  of  my 
mind,  and  which,  if  they  are  wrong,  the  sooner  they  are 
refuted  the  better." 

"  BRIGHTON,  30th  May,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAE  CAPEL  :  You  seem  to  forget  that  you  at 
first  approved  of  those  remarks  on  Coleridge  which  you 
now  condemn,  and  at  all  events  regret.  The  new  i  Fraser ' 
will,  I  suppose,  be  here  to-morrow  morning.  "Whatever 
Mr.  Coleridge  may  write,  I  shall  make  no  reply." 

"  BRIGHTON,  49  SUSSEX  SQUARE,  31st  May,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAE  SIE  :  "  I  received  '  Fraser '  last  night,  and 

your  letter  this  morning.     I  need  hardly  assure  you  that  I 

fully  approve  of  your  inserting  the  two  articles  attacking 

me.18    Indeed,  under  the  circumstances,  you  were  bound 

17  Mr.  Parker. 

18  "  Mr.  Buckle  and  Sir  John  Coleridge,"  by  J.  D.  Coleridge ;  and  "  Con- 
cerning Man  and  his  Dwelling-Place,"  by  A.  K.  H.  B.      "Eraser's  Maga- 
zine," vol.  lix.,  pp.  635-645,  and  644-661  ;  June,  1859. 


LETTER  TO  MB.  PARKER.  269 

to  do  so ;  and,  under  any  circumstances,  it  is  advisable 
that  the  fullest  latitude  should  be  given  to  the  expression 
of  all  opinions,  however  offensive  and  unreasonable  they 
may  be  to  those  who  dislike  them. 

"My  present  disposition  is  not  to  answer  Mr.  Cole- 
ridge's letter.  "What  is  your  impression  about  my  doing 
so  ?  Before  deciding,  it  may  be  well  to  see  what  the  next 
two  or  three  days  will  bring  forth  in  the  shape  of  com- 
ments, etc.,  respecting  which  I  shall  trust  to  your  usual 
kindness  to  supply  me  with  information.  I  shall  be  in 
town  on  business  for  three  or  four  days  on  or  about  the 
14th  of  June,  and  I  will  let  you  know,  that  we  may  talk 
this  matter  over.  Meanwhile,  please  to  send  me  such 
criticisms  as  you  may  meet  with." 

In  reply  to  this,  Mr.  Parker  strongly  advised  him  to 
silence.  But  he  was  so  excited  that  he  had  already  begun 
an  answer  "  which,  however,"  he  writes,  May  31st,  "  I  am 
not  certain  if  I  shall  publish."  On  June  1st,  he  writes : 
"  Continued  reply  to  J.  D.  Coleridge,  though  still  doubt- 
ful as  to  publishing  it."  June  2d :  "  Continued  answer 
to  J.  D.  Coleridge ;  which  I  think  I  shall  publish."  It 
was  finished  on  the  8th ;  and  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Parker  on 
the  9th :  "  You  know  that  I  dislike  controversy,  as  a  waste 
of  time,  and  that  I  have  always  abstained  from  replying 
to  attacks  made  upon  me.  But  the  tone  of  the  daily  press 
and  my  own  private  letters  convince  me  that  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  take  notice  of  what  Mr.  Coleridge  has 
said.  He  has  imputed  to  me  many  things  which  I  never 
meant,  and  which  I  desire  to  state  that  I  never  did  mean. 
I  also  wish  to  withdraw  the  language  which  I  have  used 


270  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

in  intimating  that  Sir  J.  Coleridge  knew  of  Pooley's  mad- 
ness ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  I  shall  sum  up,  and  state 
more  clearly  the  evidence  that  he  was  mad.  To  do  this 
is  for  my  interest,  and  what  is  for  my  interest  is  also  for 
yours.  My  letter  will  be  under  four  pages,  and  it  will  be 
such  as  Mr.  Coleridge  will  hardly  deem  it  necessary  to 
answer.  If,  however,  he  should  answer  it,  I  promise  you 
to  trespass  no  more  in  <  Eraser ' ;  for  your  magazine  would 
be  injured  by  a  long  personal  controversy ;  and,  indepen- 
dently of  my  sense  of  justice  to  you,  I  feel  that  your  un- 
deviating  courtesy  to  me,  and,  indeed,  friendliness,  would 
be  ill  returned  by  my  causing  you  annoyance.  There- 
fore, in  case  the  matter  should  go  further,  I  will  publish 
a  pamphlet,  thoroughly  investigating  the  whole  subject ; 
and  I  make  no  doubt  that  the  members  of  Parliament 
and  others  who  have  furnished  me  with  private  and  local 
information  (which  I  hold  in  my  hands\  will  allow  me  to 
mention  their  names  and  quote  their  authority.  At  pres- 
ent there  is  no  necessity  for  this,  and  I  do  not  wish  to 
compromise  my  friends  in  an  unpopular  question;  but 
some  of  them  would,  I  know,  run  any  risk  sooner  than 
see  me  branded  as  a  libeler  when  they  could  prove  the 
contrary. 

"  I  should  wish,  if  you  please,  an  advertisement  put  at 
once  into  the  '  Times,'  stating  that  a  letter  will  appear 
from  me  to  the  editor  of  '  Fraser,'  because  that  may  delay 
the  summary  which  you  say  the  '  Times  '  is  preparing,  and 
which  I  should  like  to  be  delayed  until  my  letter  appears. 
I  shall,  I  think,  be  able  to  recall  the  public  mind  to  the 
real  points  at  issue,  which  Mr.  Coleridge  has  perplexed 
with  extraneous  matter.  Besides,  I  could  not  reply  to  the 


LETTER  TO  MR,  PARKER.  271 

( Times,'  and  nothing  would  induce  me  to  answer  an 
anonymous  writer.  If  I  did,  there  would  be  no  end 
of  it." 

"  BRIGHTON,  49  SUSSEX  SQUARE,  9th  June,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIK  : 19  Perhaps  you  are  right  in  supposing 
that  it  will  not  be  necessary  for  me  to  sum  up  all  the  evi- 
dence of  Pooley's  madness,  though,  from  what  I  hear,  the 
assertions  of  Mr.  Coleridge  and  of  the  magistrates'  clerk 
(whose  testimony  he  quotes)  have  produced  a  certain  effect. 
However,  your  note  in  '  Fraser,' 20  with  the  medical  opin- 
ion, was  very  useful  as  a  counteraction. 

"  If  I  abstain  from  going  at  length  into  the  question 
of  insanity,  about  two  pages  and  a  half  will  be  all  the  space 
I  shall  ask  for.  Mr.  Coleridge  has  quietly  imputed  to  me 
a  number  of  accusations  which  I  never  made.  What  can 
he  mean  by  talking  of  my  imputing  a  <  conspiracy '  be- 
tween Sir  George  Grey  and  the  Judge  ? 

"  I  shall  be  in  Oxford  Terrace  on  Saturday  next,  the 
llth,  for  about  a  week.  Perhaps  you  will  do  me  the 
pleasure  of  calling  the  first  morning  you  can,  before  12.30 
(on  Sunday  if  you  like).  I  shall  be  full  of  business,  or  else 
would  call  upon  you. 

"  As  you  say  that  the  ;  Times '  has  given  up  its  idea 
of  a  summary,  it  will  not  be  worth  while  to  notice  my  let- 
ter by  separate  advertisement ;  for  that  would  give  need- 
less prominence  to  a  personal  matter.  The  usual  adver- 
tisement of  the  contents  of  '  Fraser '  would  suffice — at  least, 
I  should  think  so ;  but  you  are  the  best  judge. 

»  Mr.  Parker. 

20  At  the  end  of  Mr.  J.  D.  Coleridge's  Letter,  "  Eraser's  Magazine,"  vol. 
lix.,  p.  638,  June,  1859. 


272  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  I  received  yesterday  a  proposal  for  a  public  meeting 
to  be  convened  on  Pooley's  case ;  but  I  have  thrown  cold 
water  upon  it,  and  at  all  events  I  shall  take  no  part.  I 
have  all  along  had  no  personal  feeling,  and  I  have  none 
now.  I  should  not  be  surprised  if  in  a  few  days  you  see 
an  advertisement  for  a  meeting ;  but,  if  so,  you  may  rely 
upon  my  not  coming  forward. 

"  Thank  you  for  your  kind  inquiries.  I  am  much  bet- 
ter and  stronger  in  every  way,  and  working  at  [my]  next 
volume." 

On  the  llth  he  returned  to  London,  and  "  had  a  long 
visit  from  Parker,  who  does  not  like  to  publish  my  reply 
to  Coleridge  in  *  Eraser ' ;  but  recommends  me  to  put  it 
forward  in  a  pamphlet,  which  I  shall  probably  do."  And 
he  writes  as  follows  to  Mrs.  Grey : 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  14th  June,  1859. 
"  DEAR  MES.  GREY  :  .  .  .  Mr.  Parker  has  just  left  me. 
It  is  probable  that  I  shall  publish  a  pamphlet  about  Cole- 
ridge and  Pooley.  This,  not  being  quite  settled,  please  not 
to  mention  ;  but  I  should  be  glad  to  hear  from  you  what 
points  in  my  accusation  of  the  Judge  you  think  Mr.  Cole- 
ridge has  invalidated.  "When  we  meet  on  Thursday  will 
be  time  enough ;  but  I  should  be  glad  if  you  will  write 
down  the  heads.  All  I  want  is  your  judgment  as  to  wheth- 
er or  not  Mr.  Coleridge  has  set  aside  any  of  my  charges." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  24th  June,  1859. 
"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : 81  As  I  have  not  heard  from  you,  I  sup- 
pose you  have  no  remark  to  make ;  if  so,  the  pamphlet 

"Mr.  Parker. 


LETTEE  TO  ME.  PAEKEE. 

had  better  be  published  immediately.     Please  not  to  for- 
get to  send  copies  to  ...  and  twenty  copies  to  me. 

"  A  young  friend  of  mine  is  collecting  autographs. 
Would  you  be  kind  enough  to  preserve  for  me  some  of 
your  best  authors  ? " 

"59  OXFOKD  TEKBACE,  gjth  June,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIK : ai  I  almost  fear  whether  you  will  re- 
ceive this  before  you  return  on  Monday,  but  I  chance  it, 
as  I  will  not  go  to  press  until  I  have  your  opinion  about 
the  duration  of  the  imprisonment. 

"  All  the  accounts  I  can  now  lay  my  hands  on  say  twenty- 
one  months.  This  is  given,  not  only  in  the  i  Reasoner,' 
and  in  Mr.  Holyoake's  pamphlet,  but  also  in  the  '  Specta- 
tor' of  8th  of  August,  1857,  and  in  [the]  < Times'  of  3d 
August.  To  the  argument  of  my  pamphlet  it  matters  (as 
you  truly  say)  nothing ;  but  to  the  point  of  it,  it  matters 
a  good  deal.  Besides,  in  my  essay  I  said  twenty-one 
months  (as  Mr.  Mill,  in  his  '  Liberty,'  I  believe,  also  says)  ; 
and,  though  I  would  willingly  recant  an  error,  I  do  not 
wish  even  in  a  matter  of  detail  to  represent  myself  as  be- 
ing wrong  when  I  am  probably  right.  The  <  Saturday 
Review '  stands  alone  in  calling  it  eighteen  months.  The 
<  Solicitors'  Journal '  (I  think)  said  twenty-one ;  but  of  this 
I  am  not  sure.  I  must  ascertain  this.  Surely  there  are 
means  in  this  free  country  of  learning  beyond  the  possibil- 
ity of  a  doubt  what  any  sentence  was  ?  and  I  would  rather 
stay  in  town  and  keep  the  pamphlet  back  than  be  baffled. 

"  There  seems  a  good  deal  of  force  in  what  you  say  of 
Pooley  having   'traduced'   the  Author   of  Christianity. 

21  Mr.  Parker. 
18 


274  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

Therefore  I  have  omitted  the  '  hurt  no  one  and  traduced 
no  one,'  and  inserted  ( neither  hurt  nor  traduced  any  liv- 
ing being.'  This  is  a  real  improvement,  and  I  am  much 
obliged  to  you  for  having  been  the  means  of  putting  it 
into  my  head. 

"  Could  the  clerk  of  the  records  be  written  to  ? 
"  Sincerely  yours,  etc. 

"  The  first  petition  to  Sir  G.  Grey,  which  I  have  seen, 
but  can  not  at  the  moment  refer  to,  also  mentions  twenty- 
one  months.  This  I  am  sure  of." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  25th  June,  1859. 
"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : M  Since  writing  to  you  yesterday  I  saw 
Mr.  Mayo,  and  he  undertook  to  get  official  evidence  of  the 
sentence.  I  hav.e  this  moment  received  his  letter.  On 
the  other  side  I  give  an  extract  of  his  own  words,  in  order 
that  you  may  judge  if  they  set  the  matter  at  rest.  The 
clerk  may  have  been  speaking  from  the  memory  of  what 
he  saw  in  the  newspapers ;  and  you  will  observe  that  it  is 
not  said  that  he  referred  to  any  document  stating  what 
the  sentence  was.  Can  we  not  have  an  attested  copy  of 
the  sentence  on  paying  a  f ee  ?  I  need  hardly  say  that  to 
be  beyond  the  possibility  of  doubt  I  would  gladly  pay 
such  fee.  I  shall  not  send  the  proof  to  the  printers  till  I 
hear  from  you.  On  Monday  I  leave  home  at  two  o'clock, 
and  shall  be  out  all  the  afternoon  till  about  seven. 
"  Yours  very  truly,  etc. 

"  Mr.  Mayo  writes : 

" '  I  was  directed  to  the  Clerk  of  the  Western  Assize, 

23  Mr.  Parker. 


LETTER  TO  MR.   PARKER. 

Mr.  Sidney  Gurney  House ;  and  his  clerk  let  me  glance 
over  the  parchment  indictment  in  his  office  containing 
four  counts;  and  on  the  last  of  the  indictment  it  was 
written  that  the  prisoner  was  found  guilty  of  the  1st,  3d, 
and  4th  counts ;  and  the  clerk  informed  me  that  he  knew 
positively  that  the  sentence  was  for  twenty-one  months' 
imprisonment  in  the  jail — six  months  on  the  first  count ; 
six  months  on  the  third  count ;  and  nine  months  on  the 
fourth  count.  The  clerk  said  a  copy  could  be  had  of  the 
indictment  if  necessary,  but  only  allowed  me  to  glance 
over  it  without  noting  anything  on  paper.' 

"  Thus  far  Mr.  Mayo.  A  copy  of  the  indictment  I 
should  not  much  care  about ;  but  a  copy  or  memorandum 
of  the  sentence  would  be  satisfactory — though  I  can  not 
possibly  believe  that  all  the  accounts  are  wrong,  and  the 
'  Saturday  Review '  alone  right.  Besides,  I  don't  think 
Mr.  Coleridge  would  have  let  slip  the  opportunity  of 
taunting  me  with  inaccuracy." 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  27th  June,  1859. 

"MY  DEAJR  Sra:23  I  will  write  immediately  to  Mr. 
Mayo,  and  try  if  I  can  not  get  official  and  attested  evi- 
dence ;  for,  as  there  is,  to  my  mind,  scarcely  any  doubt  of 
twenty-one  months  being  the  term,  I  do  not  see  why  I 
should  needlessly  charge  myself  with  inaccuracy. 

"  In  my  letter  I  have  purposely  used  less  strong  lan- 
guage than  in  my  essay ;  partly  because  there  was  no  need 
to  repeat  what  I  had  already  said,  and  partly  because  I 
wished  to  consider  you  as  the  publisher.  But  surely  I 
have  a  right  to  comment  as  I  like  upon  the  public  conduct 

23  Mr.  Parker. 


276  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

of  a  public  magistrate  ?  and  this  is  all  I  have  done.  The 
most  severe  expressions  I  have  used  are  '  cruelty,'  and 
1  evil  deed ' ;  and  if  the  sentence  on  Pooley  was  not  an 
act  of  cruelty,  what  does  the  word  mean  ?  The  infliction 
of  needlessly  severe  punishment  is  cruelty,  even  if  the 
motive  is  good.  For  instance,  an  honest  and  well-inten- 
tioned schoolmaster  may  be  cruel,  and  would  be  punished, 
however  pure  his  motives  might  be.  This  at  least  is  my 
way  of  looking  at  it ;  and  if  I  am  right,  then,  indeed,  a 
fortiori  an  act  of  cruelty  by  a  judge  is  an  evil  deed. 

"  In  regard  to  your  responsibility,  I  will  write  you  any 
sort  of  letter  you  desire,  with  the  understanding  that  you 
shall  show  it  to  whoever  you  like.  You  published  (and  I 
am  glad  you  did  so)  Mr.  Coleridge's  letter,  charging  me 
with  slander  and  malignity :  can  he  expect  that  you,  my 
sole  publisher,  should  object  to  print  my  rejoinder,  when 
it  does  not  even  appear  in  your  magazine,  but  as  a  pam- 
phlet with  my  name  ? 

"  Yours  very  truly,  etc. 

"  If  you  are  '  identified '  with  my  attack,  then  every 
publisher  makes  himself  responsible  for  a  signed  letter 
which  he  publishes  as  a  pamphlet.  With  such  a  doctrine 
there  would  be  an  end  to  all  free  discussion." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  %8fh  June,  1859. 
"  MY  DEAR  Sra  : "  Entirely  to  please  you  I  have  struck 
out  the  word  £  evil,'  leaving  the  passage <  the  principal  actor, 
of  that  deed.'  By  this  post  I  send  the  proof  to  Messrs. 
Saville  and  Edwards.  If  to-morrow  is  fine,  I  shall  be  all 
day  in  the  country ;  therefore,  you  will  perhaps  have  the 

24  Mr.  Parker. 


"LETTER  TO  A  GENTLEMAN."  277 

kindness  to  see  that  my  corrections  are  properly  made  by 
the  printers.  They  are  only  £  evil,'  omitted  at  p.  1,  line 
13 ;  f  are,'  instead  of  i  were,'  at  p.  6,  line  29 ;  rand  '  neither 
hurt  nor  traduced  any  living  being,'  instead  of  '  hurt  no 
one  and  traduced  no  one,'  at  p.  7,  line  23. 

"  This  has  been  a  long  and  troublesome  business,  but  I 
am  more  vexed  by  the  annoyance  it  has  caused  you  than 
by  its  effect  on  me." 

The  "  Letter  to  a  Gentleman  respecting  Pooley's  Case  " 
was  published  a  few  days  later,  and  contains  much  of  the 
matter  of  his  private  letters.  "  His  defense,"  says  Buckle, 
"  fully  justifies  my  attack ;  and,  if  he  is  willing  to  agree 
to  the  proposal,  I  wish  for  nothing  better  than  that  both 
attack  and  defense  should  be  reprinted  side  by  side,  and 
circulated  together  as  widely  as  possible,  so  that  they  may 
be  read  wherever  the  English  people  are  to  be  found,  or 
wherever  the  English  tongue  is  known."  It  need  hardly 
be  said  that  the  attack  alone,  of  the  two,  has  been  reprinted. 

Nevertheless,  this  pamphlet,  despite  its  power  and 
scathing  sarcasm,  had  no  very  great  circulation,  owing  to 
the  form  in  which  it  was  printed  ;  and  he  writes  as  follows : 

"BOULOGNE,  2Jfih  October,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  CAPEL  :  .  .  .  I  am  particularly  glad  to 
hear  that  you  have  done  something  about  the  'Letter.' 
The  little  publicity  given  to  it  is,  I  think,  unfair  toward 
me,  and  still  more  unfair  toward  the  cause  which  I  advo- 
cate. Of  course  I  can  do  nothing ;  and  the  great  dislike 
which  I  have  to  circulate  my  own  writings  prevents  me 
from  sending  copies  to  people.  If  you  chance  to  be  in 


278  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

town,  I  wish  you  would  ask  Parker  how  matters  are  go- 
ing on." 

He  told  his  friend,  Mr.  Henry  Huth,  that  he  intended 
at  some  future  time  to  get  his  essays  reprinted,  and  meant 
then  to  ask  Mr.  Coleridge,  through  his  publisher,  whether 
he  wished  to  have  his  answer  to  the  accusation  inserted  in 
the  reprint.  "I  have  not  done  anything  in  my  life  on 
which  I  look  back  with  greater  satisfaction  than  this,"  he 
added  with  earnest  emphasis.  "  Since  I  wrote  that  article 
I  have  had  a  great  many  requests  from  people  who  have 
suffered  wrong  to  write  about  their  cases ;  but,  if  I  were  to 
go  about  like  Don  Quixote,  redressing  evils,  I  should  miss 
my  effect  where  I  think  it  most  desirable  that  I  should 
speak." 

That  this  controversy  should  have  occurred  just  after 
his  mother's  death  was  exceedingly  lucky  for  Buckle.  It 
gave  him  an  interest ;  for,  excepting  as  regards  his  intel- 
lectual powers,  he  was  but  the  wreck  of  his  former  self. 

"  BRIGHTON,  19th  May,  1859. 

"Mr  DEAR  MRS.  GREY:  I  did  not  answer  your  kind 
note  immediately,  because  I  thought  that  by  waiting  a  few 
days  I  might  be  able  to  say  something  positively  about  my 
movements.  But  they  are  still  uncertain,  and  I  can  not 
decide  upon  them.  Here  I  am,  working  hard — and  it  is 
my  only  pleasure,  just  as  the  capacity  of  work  and  thought 
is  the  only  part  of  me  that  has  not  deteriorated.  Strange ! 
that  the  intellect  alone  should  be  spared.  But  so  it  is. 
The  feeling  of  real  happiness  I  never  expect  again  to 
know;  but  I  am  perfectly  calm.  Only  to  tell  you  the 


ILLNESS.  279 

honest  truth  at  once,  I  dread  to  see  yon  because  of  the 
associations  of  the  past.  While  I  am  here,  everything  re- 
minds me  of  things  that  were  /  but,  then,  I  see  literally  no 
one,  except  my  aunt,  who  never  expects  me  to  talk,  and 
I  sit  all  the  evening  with  her  as  contemplative  as  if  I 
were  alone.  And  I  can  not  break  up  these  habits ;  I  begin 
even  to  doubt  if  I  shall  travel.  I  do  not  yield  to  this  with- 
out a  struggle.  One  day  I  did  dine  with  Mr. ,  but  I 

suffered  too  much  from  the  reaction  to  try  society  again. 
Sometimes  my  old  plan  of  going  to  the  United  States 
comes  before  me — but  I  can  not  tell.  .  .  . 

"  I  have  spent  many  pleasant  days  with  you  all ;  bnt,  if 
we  were  now  to  meet,  it  would  only  distress  your  warm 
heart.  Leave  me  alone,  or  write,  if  you  will,  about  your 
studies  and  your  books.  Into  those  I  can  enter,  but  all 
else  is  gone.  I  am  quite  well,  and  able  to  take  my  full 
amount  of  exercise." 

And  his  aunt  writes  concerning  this  visit,  showing  how 
his  spirits  improved : 

"BRIGHTON,  25th  June,  1859, 

"  It  is  now  two  weeks  to-day  since  Henry  left  me :  he 
was  certainly  better  for  the  change,  and  had  many  friends, 
which  made  it  pleasant  for  him,  as  he  dined  out  several 

times,  and  often  spent  the  evening  at  the  C 's,  who  live 

in  Kemp  Town."  He  often  had  great  fits  of  depression, 
and  excessive  weakness  also.  I  very  much  fear  for  his 
brain ;  and  I  am  sure  he  does  so  himself.  One  morning 
he  was  out  of  bed  dressing  half  an  hour  before  he  knew 

25  He  dined  out  six  times  in  seven  weeks,  and  spent  the  evening  out 
once. 


280  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

where  lie  was — he  thought  he  was  in  Oxford  Terrace.  I 
heard  from  him  last  week :  he  said  he  intended  leaving 
London  in  a  short  time,  but  did  not  tell  me  where  he  was 
going.  .  .  .  Henry  sometimes  said  he  would  go  to  Bou- 
logne ;  but  he  had  no  settled  plan.  When  he  left  me  he 
talked  of  doing  different  things  every  day." 

"  But  I  can  not  tell,"  is  the  burden  of  his  letters.  He 
could  decide  on  nothing  for  certain.  He  was  changing  his 
mind  every  day.  But  he  could  still  help  his  friends : 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  26th  June,  1859. 

"  DEAR  Miss  SHIRREFF  :  I  send  the  third,  fourth,  and 
fifth  volumes  of  Wagenaar.  You  always  take  so  much 
care  of  books  that  it  seems  ungracious  to  ask  you  to  take 
especial  care  of  these ;  but  the  fact  is  that  the  entire  work, 
which  I  possess,  of  more  than  sixty  volumes,  is  very  rare, 
even  in  Holland,  and  here  unprocurable.  Therefore  I 
would  only  beg  of  you  not  to  travel  about  with  them,  as 
luggage  is  sometimes  lost,  and  it  would  be  impossible  to 
complete  the  set  if  anything  were  to  happen  to  one  of  the 
volumes. 

"  I  am  quite  well.  I  shall  leave  town  either  on  Mon- 
day or  Tuesday,  and  probably  go  direct  to  Cromer — but  I 

don't  know." 

• 

The  following  note,  written  to  Mr.  Theodore  Parker, 
also  gives  some  account  of  his  state : 

"  BLACKHEATH,  5th  July,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  been  in  town  for  a  few  days  on 
business,  and  found  your  card  on  my  table  at  Oxford  Ter- 


STAY  AT  BLACKHEATII.  281 

race.  I  can  not  tell  you  how  much  I  regret  that  we  should 
not  have  met.  The  great  respect  which  I  feel  for  you,  as 
the  most  advanced  leader  of  opinion  in  one  of  the  two  first 
nations  of  the  world,  would  of  itself  suffice  to  make  me 
eager  for  the  pleasure  of  your  personal  acquaintance. 

"  And  when  I  add  to  this  the  memory  of  your  obliging 
and  friendly  letters  to  me,  you  will  easily  believe  me  when 
I  say  how  much  I  have  been  disappointed  at  being  unable 
to  call  upon  you,  and  make  arrangements  to  see  you. 

"  But  the  severest  of  all  calamities  has  befallen  me,  and 
has  so  prostrated  my  nervous  system  that  I  am  now  en- 
joined the  strictest  quiet. 

"  Your  conversation  would  arouse  in  me  so  many  asso- 
ciations, and  excite  me  to  so  many  inquiries  respecting 
your  noble  country,  that  I  feel  myself,  alas !  unequal  to 
meeting  you ;  and,  as  you  might  possibly  hear  from  some 
of  my  friends  in  London,  I  have  been  compelled  to  give 
up  all  society.  In  such  cases  the  more  I  am  interested  the 
more  I  am  hurt.  I  do  not  know  how  long  you  are  likely 
to  stay  in  England  ;  but  it  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to 
hear  from  you,  and  to  be  assured  that  you  understand  the 
cause  of  my  apparent  inattention.  I  shall  probably  remain 
here  until  the  end  of  August."  26 

At  the  time  he  wrote  this  letter  he  was  staying  in 
lodgings  at  Blackheath,  whither  he  had  gone  after  leaving 
Brighton,  and  seen  his  "Letter  to  a  Gentleman"  through 
the  press.  His  History,  the  second  volume  of  which  he 
had  been  working  at,  at  Brighton,  was  so  far  advanced 
that  he  began  to  copy  part  of  it ;  though  he  enters  in  his 

56  Weiss,  vol.  i.,  pp.  469,  470. 


BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

diary  that  he  expects  fifteen  months  more  will  be  passed 
before  it  is  finished  and  ready  for  the  press. 

During  his  stay  at  Blackheath  Mr.  Capel  visited  him, 
and  wrote,  as  follows,  to  a  friend : 

"  I  went  to  Elsham  Koad,"  he  writes,  July  25th,  "  on 
Saturday  week,  and  began  a  letter  to  you  there  to  let  you 
know  what  our  friend  is  after ;  but  he  broke  me  off  in  the 
middle,  and  I  did  not  take  it  up  again. 

"He  is  going  on  composing  uninterruptedly  every 
morning,  and  has  two  chapters  on  Scotland  ready  for  the 
press.  He  is  getting  on  fast  with  the  fourth,  which  will, 
I  hope,  soon  be  complete.  He  will  then  be  ready  to  ad- 
dress himself  to  the  last — on  the  deductive  method  of  the 
Scotch  schools,  and  its  influence  and  general  operation. 
This,  as  he  says,  will  prove  the  toughest  part  of  the  vol- 
ume. 

"  There  are  two  or  three  curious  incidents  about  his 
domicile  which  you  will  like  to  hear.  He  is  very  much 
satisfied  with  his  quarters,  as  you  will  have  seen  from  his 
note.  He  advertised,  stating  his  wants,  and  of  course  got 
numerous  replies.  He  was  disposed  to  go  to  Bexley 
Heath,  lower  down  in  Kent,  but  was  determined  by  the 
shady  avenues  of  the  fine  Spanish  chestnuts  in  Green- 
wich Park.  Other  things  have  conspired  to  justify  his 
choice,  for  his  landlady,  who  has  been  a  widow  four  or 
five  years,  turned  out  a  somewhat  remarkable  person. 
She  reads  Italian,  quotes  Tasso  and  Dante,  etc.,  is  well 
up  in  French,  and  knows  its  literature,  and  when  neces- 
sary can  produce  Yirgil  and  Cicero.  There's  for  you! 
She  did  not  know  anything  particularly  of  her  inmate  till 
I  went  down,  and  found  her  rather  astonished,  and  hold- 


STAY  AT  BLACKHEATH.  283 

ing  her  breath  at  him.  She  told  me  she  had  known  me 
well  in  the  church  in  London,  and  she  was  evidently  glad 
to  have  her  excited  curiosity  as  to  her  guest  ,-set  at  rest. 
So  I  let  the  light  fully  in  upon  her,  and  called  up  her 
anxiety  to  make  atonement  for  having  ventured  to  dis- 
agree with  him  in  something  he  had  said  to  her  as  to  the 
mental  influence  of  women — the  old  topic,  you  see.  On 
going  the  next  day  (for  they  could  not  take  me  in  there) 
I  told  her  I  had  three  copies  of  the  '  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion,' and  would  lend  her  one ;  but  she  had  lost  no  time, 
and  had  been  to  the  bookseller  and  ordered  a  copy. 

"  Such,  then,  is  his  hostess  mentally,  and  in  manners  she 
is  very  much  of  the  gentlewoman.  So  you  will  not  won- 
der that  in  the  evening,  after  dinner,  he  sometimes  drops 
the  solitaire,  and  invites  her  to  converse,  as  he  takes  his 
ease  on  the  lawn  in  the  shade  behind  the  house.  Nor  is 
this,  when  so  disposed,  his  only  resource,  for  she  has  two 
or  three  children  living  with  her,  whose  parents  are  in 
India ;  and  he  has  made  great  friends  with  these — espe- 
cially with  one,  a  little  girl  about  five,  a  quick,  intelligent 
thing,  and,  as  you  may  suppose,  she  has  not  been  slow  to 
show  how  sure  she  is  of  his  predilections,  for  she  climbs 
up  on  him,  gets  on  his  back,  and  pats  him  on  the  face, 
and  glories  in  her  liberties,  which  pleases  him  the  more. 
So,  at  present,  time  goes  on.  ... 

"  I  saw  my  medecin  down  here,  and  he  ordered  me  to 
the  sea  forthwith,  or  I  do  not  think  Mr.  Buckle  would 
have  consented  to  my  leaving.  As  it  was,  he  told  me  if 
he  were  not  so  busy,  and  going  on  so  satisfactorily  with 
his  work,  he  would  go  to  Cromer  with  me  for  as  long  as  I 
could  stop." 


284  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

Buckle  was,  indeed,  remarkably  fond  of  children,  and 
possessed  the  power  of  making  them  fond  of  him.  Once, 
when  stopping  with  Mr.  Capel,  he  saw  a  little  girl  during 
one  of  his  walks  who  took  his  fancy — "  she  looked  so  gen- 
tle." He  talked  to  the  little  thing  and  played  with  her, 
and  the  next  day,  and  several  days  following,  he  always 
found  her  at  the  same  spot.  At  last  he  told  her  he  should 
not  see  her  again,  because  he  was  going  away.  The  child 
looked  very  blank  at  this,  but,  suddenly  brightening  up, 
asked  him  to  take  her  with  him,  she  would  "  like  to  be  his 
little  girl."  Once,  too,  calling  on  some  friends,  they  no- 
ticed how  remarkably  heated  he  looked.  He  had  been 
playing  cricket  with  some  nephews.  "  I  can  not  refuse 
anything  to  children,"  he  said,  in  excuse  for  tiring  himself 
so  in  his  weak  state  and  on  so  hot  a  day. 

His  little  niece  was  one  of  his  favorite  toys.  "  Let  the 
mother  do  for  the  boy ;  I  will  take  care  of  the  little  girl," 
he  said. 

From  Greenwich  he  went  to  Margate,  and,  though  his 
work  steadily  went  on,  his  weakness  gained  upon  him. 
August  17th  he  "  accidentally  fell  down  stairs  and  fainted 
away."  Yet  he  did  not  himself  seem  to  see  that  he  was 
out-taxing  his  strength. 

"  MARGATE,  7th  September,  1859. 

"  I  expect  to  be  in  town  for  a  very  few  days  late  in 
this  month,  on  my  way  to  Boulogne.  I  am  working  very 
hard  at  Yol.  II.,  and  am  quite  well.  I  have  absolutely  no- 
thing to  write  about,  though  I  began  my  paper  high  up, 
thinking  to  send  you  a  long  letter.  .  .  .  "What  you  say 

about  the  little  B 's  does  not  seem  so  alarming  as  you 

think,  unless  Dr.  Mayo  has  said  more  than  you  have  told 


LETTER  TO  MR.  PARKER.  285 

me.  He  is  naturally  nervous,  and  this  always  makes  men 
lean  to  the  unfavorable  side ;  besides,  his  extreme  con- 
scientiousness would  make  him  unwilling  to  run  the  risk 
of  seeming  to  give  a  flattering  judgment.  Children  change 
so  rapidly,  and  are  so  capable  of  rallying,  that  what  is  true 
of  them  now  may  not  be  true  in  a  month's  time.  I  hope 
their  father  and  mother  will  not  be  needlessly  anxious. 

As  soon  as  I  know  where  Mrs.  B is  I  will  write. 

Everything  is  so  uncertain  (or,  to  speak  more  properly,  we 
are  so  densely  ignorant)  that,  unless  there  is  actual  organic 
disease,  I  do  not  think  we  ought  ever  to  be  apprehensive 
about  those  we  love.  Otherwise  we  may  pass  our  lives  in 
constant  fear." 

"MARGATE,  1  PARK  PLACE,  13th  August,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAB  SIR  : 2T  .  .  .  Having  been  working  very 
hard  at  Yol.  II.,  I  have  flagged  a  little,  and  been  advised 
to  try  sea-bathing  here.  I  am  very  anxious,  if  possible,  to 
go  to  press  early  next  year.  There  are  still  some  Spanish 
books  which  Williams  and  Norgate  promised  to  get  for 
me,  though  I  hardly  know  now  what  they  are.  I  hope 
that  you  have  remained  pretty  well.  To  stay  in  London 
and  to  work  must  be  very  trying  in  such  weather  as  we 
have  had. 

"  I  see  advertised  in  the  '  Times '  an  article  in  the 
*  Law  Review ' a8  on  Pooley's  case ;  but,  as  I  know  that 
my  facts  can  not  be  disputed,  I  have  not  thought  it  worth 
while  to  buy  the  'Review,'  and  shall  wait  till  I  can  read 

27  Mr.  Parker. 

28  "  Sir  John  Taylor  Coleridge  and  Mr.  Buckle."    In  the  "  Law  Magazine 
and  Law  Review  "  for  August,  1859,  pp.  263-284. 


286  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

it  in  town  for  nothing — which  is  about  the  value  of  most 

criticisms." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  28th  September,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : "  Thanks  for  your  note.  All  that  I 
want  at  present  is  to  have  the  other  volume  of  Campo- 
manes's  'Educacion  Popular,'  of  which  you  procured 
some  time  ago  four  vols.  for  me  (I  think  from  Nutt's). 
This  work,  as  I  now  have  it,  is  incomplete,  and  wants  the 
most  important  part,  viz.,  the  appendix  of  documents. 
Also,  I  should  be  glad  to  have  the  Spanish  work  on  the 
Church.  I  forget  the  title,  but  you  sent  me  last  spring  a 
copy,  which  I  returned  to  you,  and  which  belonged  to  Mr. 
Doyle,  or  at  least  was  procured  by  him. 

"  I  am  in  town  for  a  few  days  before  going  to  Brigh- 
ton. I  am,  and  have  been,  very  busy  with  Yol.  II. 

"  Yours  very  sincerely,  etc. 

"  I  have  had  a  hint  of  a  review  preparing  in  the  ( Tab- 
let.' Do  you  know  aught  of  it  ?  And  have  you  heard  of 
a  review  in  the  '  Rambler '  ?  Whenever  you  have  occa- 
sion to  write,  please  to  give  me  an  idea  of  how  Miss  Shir- 
reff's  book  is  selling ;  but  don't  trouble  yourself  to  write 
on  purpose — I  know  you  have  a  good  deal  to  do." 

"MARGATE,  7th  September,  1859. 

"  MY  DEAR  CAPEL  :  Nearly  all  the  early  editions  of  Bayle 
are  castrated.  You  had  better  not  buy  one  before  1730. 
Look  if  it  has  the  two  lives  of  David,  one  of  which  is  mostly 
wanting,  4  vols.  folio,  calf,  35s.  to  £2  2s.  Chalmers  at  £6 
5s.  ought  to  be  a  good  copy,  in  sound  calf  or  half  morocco ; 
and  even  then  it  would  not  be  particularly  cheap.  .  .  . 

89  Mr.  Parker. 


LETTER  TO  MRS.  BOWYEAR.  287 

"  I  am  working  very  hard  at  Yol.  II.,  and  am  tolerably 
well. 

"  Parker  sent  me  the  '  Fraser.'  Dr.  Mayo  writes,  as  he 
could  hardly  fail  to  do,  in  a  very  liberal  and  friendly  spir- 
it. I  quite  agree  with  what  he  says ;  but  it  does  not  touch 
my  theory.80 

"  The  most  convenient  edition  of  Bayle  is  one  published 
this  century,  in  about  16  volumes  8vo;  but  I  am  afraid  it 
is  a  dear  book." 

Dr.  Mayo's  paper  chiefly  contested  the  proof  of  the 
little  effect  of  morals  on  the  progress  of  mankind.  Con- 
cerning this,  Buckle  had  written  soon  after  the  publication 
of  his  first  volume  to  Mrs.  Bowyear : 

"January,  1858. 

"  You  ask  me  how  I  reply  to  the  charge  of  not  taking 
into  consideration  the  effects  produced  by  the  passions  of 
men  on  the  course  of  history.  My  answer  is,  that  we  have 
no  reason  to  believe  that  human  passions  are  materially 
better  or  worse  than  formerly — nor  that  they  are  smaller 
or  greater.  If,  therefore,  the  amount  and  nature  of  the 
passions  are  unchanged,  they  can  not  be  the  cause  either 
of  progress  or  of  decay ;  because  an  unchanged  cause  can 
only  generate  an  unchangeable  effect.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  true  that  the  manifestation,  and,  as  it  were,  the  shape 
of  the  passions,  is  different  in  different  periods ;  but  such 
difference,  not  being  innate,  must  be  due  to  external 
causes.  Those  causes  propel  and  direct  the  passions  of 
men,  and  these  last  are  (in  so  far  as  they  are  changeable) 

30  "  Some  Remarks  on  Mr.  Buckle's  *  History  of  Civilization ' "  :  "  Eraser's 
Magazine,"  September,  1859,  p.  293  et  seq. 


288  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

the  products  of  civilization,  and  not  the  producers  of  it. 
In  my  book  I  always  examine  the  causes  of  events  as  high 
up  as  I  can  find  them,  because  I  consider  the  object  of 
science  is  to  reach  the  largest  and  most  remote  generaliza- 
tions. But  my  critics  prefer  considering  the  immediate 
and  most  proximate  causes ;  and  in  their  way  of  looking 
at  the  subject  they  naturally  accuse  me  of  neglecting  the 
study  of  the  emotions,  moral  principles,  and  the  like. 
According  to  my  view,  the  passions,  etc.,  are  both  causes 
and  effects,  and  I  seek  to  rise  to  their  cause ;  while,  if  I 
were  a  practical  writer,  I  should  confine  myself  to  their 
effects.  But  I  despair  of  writing  anything  satisfactory 
within  the  limits  of  a  letter  on  this  subject." 

''BOULOGNE,  15th  October,  1859. 

"  It  is  impossible  in  a  letter  to  answer  fully  your  ques- 
tions on  the  utilitarian  theory  of  morals.  But  I  do  not 
think  that  you  separate  rigidly  two  very  different  matters, 
viz.,  what  morals  do  rest  upon,  and  what  they  ought  to  rest 
upon.  All  very  honest  people  who  have  not  any  reach  of 
mind  regulate  the  greater  part  of  their  moral  conduct  with- 
out attending  to  consequences ;  but  it  does  not  follow  that 
they  ought  to  do  so.  The  doctrine  of  consequences  is  only 
adopted  by  persons  of  a  certain  amount  of  thought  and 
culture,  or  else  by  knaves,  who  very  likely  have  no  thought 
or  culture  at  all,  but  who  find  the  doctrine  convenient. 
Thus  it  is  that  the  science  of  political  economy  perpetually 
leads  even  disinterested  and  generous  men  to  conclusions 
which  delight  interested  and  selfish  men.  The  evil  of 
promiscuous  charity,  for  instance,  and  the  detriment  caused 
by  foundling  hospitals  and  similar  institutions,  is  quite  a 


UTILITARIANISM  AND  MORALS.  289 

modern  discovery,  and  is  directly  antagonistic  to  that  spon- 
taneous impulse  of  our  nature  which  urges  us  to  give,  and 
always  to  relieve  immediate  distress.  If  there  ever  was  a 
moral  instinct,  this  is  one;  and1  we  see  it  enforced  with 
great  pathos  in  the  New  Testament,  which  was  written  at 
a  period  when  the  evil  of  the  instinct  (as  shown  by  a  sci- 
entific investigation  of  the  theory  of  consequences)  was 
unknown.  I  have  no  doubt  that,  when  our  knowledge  is 
more  advanced,  an  immense  number  of  other  impulses  will 
be  in  the  same  way  proved  to  be  erroneous ;  but,  even 
when  the  proof  is  supplied,  there  are  only  two  classes  who 
will  act  upon  it — those  who  are  capable  of  understanding 
the  argument,  and  those  who,  without  comprehending  it, 
are  pleased  with  the  doctrine  it  inculcates.  What  is  vul- 
garly called  the  moral  faculty  is  always  spontaneous — or, 
at  least,  always  appears  to  be  so.  But  science  (i.  e.,  truth) 
is  invariably  a  limitation  of  spontaneousness.  Every  sci- 
entific discovery  is  contrary  to  common  sense,  and  the  his- 
tory of  the  reception  of  that  discovery  is  the  history  of  the 
struggle  with 'the  common  sense  and  with  the  unaided 
instincts  of  our  nature.  Seeing  this,  it  is  surely  absurd 
to  set  up  these  unaided  instincts  as  supreme ;  to  worship 
them  as  idols ;  to  regret  the  doctrine  of  consequences,  and 
to  say,  '  I  will  do  this  because  I  feel  it  to  be  right,  and  I 
will  listen  to  nothing  which  tempts  me  from  what  I  know 
to  be  my  duty J ;  to  say  this  is  well  enough  for  a  child, 
or  for  an  adult  who  has  the  intellect  of  a  child ;  but  on 
the  part  of  a  cultivated  person  it  is  nothing  better  than  sla- 
very of  the  understanding,  and  a  servile  fear  of  the  spirit 
of  analysis,  to  which  we  owe  our  most  valuable  acquisi- 
tions. 

19 


290  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

"  I  wish  I  could  publish  an  essay  on  this !  How  I  pine 
for  more  time  and  more  strength !  Since  I  have  been 
here  I  have  read  what  Mill  says  in  his  essays,  and,  like 
everything  he  writes,  it  is  admirable  ;  but  I  think  that  he 
has  done  better  things.  He  does  not  make  enough  of  the 
historical  argument  of  unspontaneous  science  encroaching 
on  spontaneous  morals,  and  the  improvement  of  moral 
conduct  consequent  on  such  encroachments.  I  saw  this 
when  I  wrote  my  fourth  chapter  on  the  impossibility  of 
moral  motives  causing  social  improvement.  But  here  I 
am  getting  into  another  field,  and  it  is  hopeless." 

This  last  letter  was  written  from  Boulogne,  where  he 
went  as  usual  to  spend  Christmas,  taking  three  boxes  of 
books  with  him,  and  intending,  as  he  says,  "  to  work  stead- 
ily, as  I  have  been  doing  for  some  time,  in  the  hope  of 
finishing  Yol.  II.  before  next  spring.  I  am  quite  strong 
now,  but  miserably  restless  and  dissatisfied  with  every- 
thing except  the  creations  of  the  intellect."  But  about  a 
month  later  he  writes :  "  I  begin  this  letter  hot  in  the  best 
frame  of  mind  or  body,  as  I  am  still  suffering  from  the 
effects  of  fever,  which  has  confined  me  to  bed  for  three 
days.  .  .  .  Even  before  I  was  laid  up,  I  felt  as  if  my  en- 
ergy was  gone.  I  can  not  tell  you  how  I  dread  the  idea 
of  going  to  London,  to  that  dull  and  dreary  house  which 
was  once  so  full  of  light  and  love  !  On  the  other  hand, 
my  ambition  seems  to  grow  more  insatiate  than  ever ;  and 
it  is  perhaps  well  that  it  should,  as  that  is  my  sheet 
anchor." 

When  he  did  go  back  he  never  entered  his  drawing- 
room.  Once  only,  during  the  whole  time  from  his  moth- 


DEATH  OF  HIS  NEPHEW.  291 

er's  death  to  when  he  left  the  house  for  his  last  journey, 
did  he  summon  up  courage  to  do  so,  and  that  was  to  get  a 
book  from  a  dwarf  bookcase  which  stood  there. 

Before  he  left  Boulogne,  another  cruel  bereavement 
was  destined  to  befall  him,  in  the  death  of  his  favorite 
nephew,  a  boy  of  uncommon  parts,  and  devoted  to  his 
uncle.  He  was  his  constant  companion  out  walking. 
"  When  you  talk  to  me,  uncle,  it  seems  like  a  dream,"  he 
once  said ;  and  Buckle  had  so  high  an  opinion  of  him 
that  he  had  left  him  his  whole  library  in  his  will.  The 
boy  died  at  Christmas,  after  three  weeks'  illness.  He  that 
was  to  have  succeeded  went  before,  and  another  blow 
fell  on  Buckle's  already  tottering  health. 

A  few  days  after  his  return  from  Boulogne,  Buckle 
writes  as  follows : 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  17th  January,  1860. 

"  MY  DEAK  MRS.  WOODHEAD  :  I  have  only  been  a  week 
in  England,  and  have  had  so  much  pressing  business  that 
I  have  not  been  able  to  answer  your  letter  before.  I  was, 
however,  really  glad  to  receive  it,  and  to  hear  that  you  are 
all  pretty  well.  During  the  last  four  or  five  weeks  I  have 
been  very  unwell,  but  am  now  regaining  strength,  and  am 
busy  with  my  next  volume,  which  I  much  desire  to  pub- 
lish this  season,  though  I  am  so  hindered  by  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  procuring  Spanish  books  that  I  feel  no  con- 
fidence about  it.  You  say  nothing  about  your  husband's 
work.  Since  he  has  everything  in  his  favor — leisure, 
health,  and  strength — and  still  no  result.  However,  give 
my  love  to  him.  As  they  say  in  the  East,  '  It  is  written,' 
and  I  suppose  things  must  be  so.81 

81  Major  Woodhead  published  his  "  Life  of  Queen  Christina  "  in  1864. 


292  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  I  aril  told  that  Macaulay  has  left  his  papers  in  such 
confusion  that  nothing  more  will  be  published  of  his  His- 
tory. How  much  he  is  mourned !  Now  that  he  is  dead, 
people  are  beginning  to  understand  the  real  greatness  of 
the  man  whom  when  living  every  little  critic  was  ready  to 
revile. 

"  Tell  your  husband  to  read  Darwin  <  On  Species,' 
and  to  master  it.  He  will  find  it  full  of  thought,  and  of 
original  matter." 

He  worked  on  as  usual  his  six  hours  a  day,  and  was  as 
gay  as  ever  in  society : 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  10th  February,  1860. 
"  DEAR  THACKERAY  :  I  send  Beugnot's  work  on  '  Pa- 
ganism,' in  the  hope  that  you,  not  being  a  pagan,  will 
neither  pawn  it  nor  sell  it,  but  will  return  it  to  me  like  a 
Christian  when  you  have  read  it. 

"  Joking  apart,  the  book  is  well  worth  reading,  and  the 
best  I  know  of  on  the  subject. 

"  With  much  regard,  etc. 

"It  must  have  been  under  the  influence  of  De  Pri- 
aulx's  wine  that  I  told  you  yesterday  that  Salverte  was  the 
author." 

And  he  writes  to  Mrs.  Mitchell  that  he  is  making 
strenuous  efforts  to  go  to  press  before  the  summer.  But 
he  reckoned  without  his  constitution,  which  again  was 
beginning  to  break : 

"  TUNBRIDGE  WELLS 
"  [Between  27th  March  and  4th  April],  1860. 

"Mr  DEAR  ANNIE:  ...  I  have  been  suffering  from 
weakness  and  depression  of  spirits,  with  all  sorts  of  odd 


LETTERS. 

sensations,  and  strange  bodies  flitting" 
Mr.  Morgan  says,  what,  in  fact,  is  obvious,  that  the  brain 
has  been  seriously  overworked,  and  that  nothing  will 
restore  it  but  complete  rest  and  the  most  bracing  air  I 
can  get. 

"  I  shall  probably  stay  here  till  Tuesday  morning,  and 
then  go  for  a  day  or  two  to  Ramsgate,  thence  to  Oxford 
Terrace,  and  then,  if  the  weather  is  fine  enough,  I  shall 
travel,  but  where,  I  do  not  yet  know.  .  .  ." 

The  way  he  set  about  taking  "  complete  rest "  is  inti- 
mated by  the  following  letters,  addressed  to  his  friend 
Henry  Huth : 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  22d  August,  1860. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  returned  to  London  for  a  few 
days,  and,  not  finding  Nunez's  <  Life  of  Charles  III.' 
(which  you  thought  would  have  been  sent  to  you  before 
now),  I  write  to  ask  if  you  have  heard  anything  about 
it,  as  I  wish  to  go  to  press  early  in  November,  and  the 
book  will  be  of  no  use  to  me  unless  I  have  it  before  the 
middle  of  October." 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  25th  August,  1860. 

"MY  DEAR  SIR:-'!  feel  really  obliged  by  the  trouble 
you  are  taking  for  me.  All  that  I  know  about  Nunez  is, 
that  Rio  (in  his  <  Historia  del  Reinado  de  Carlos  III.,' 
Madrid,  1856)  constantly  refers  to  his  book  as  an  author- 
ity. At  Yol.  I.,  p.  201,  note,  Rio  gives  the  title  in  full  as 
( Fernan  Nunez,  Compendio  Historico  de  la  Yida  del  Rey 
Carlos  III.' 

"If  it  should  come  to  you  not  later  than  the  10th 
October  it  would  be  in  time." 


294  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEIT1NGS. 

"59  OXFORD  TERBACE,  12th  December,  1860. 
"...  I  have  Navarrete,  Opuscules,  which  you  lent  to 
me,  and  which  I  shall  return  as  soon  as  my  chapter  on 
Spain  is  through  the  press.  Have  you  any  Spanish  books 
on  the  reign  of  Charles  IY.  or  on  Spanish  politics  from 
the  reign  of  Ferdinand  YII.  to  the  present  time  ?  I  hope 
to  go  to  press  in  less  than  a  fortnight." 

Mr.  Capel  at  length  prevailed  on  him  to  come  and 
stay  a  week  with  him  at  Carshalton.  He  soon  made 
friends  with  the  three  boys  who  were  undergoing  tui- 
tion there,  and  who  were,  at  first,  disposed  to  look  upon 
him  with  considerable  awe.  He  romped  with  them,  pro- 
cured them  holidays,  and  threatened  Mr.  Capel  that  he 
would  make  them  rebel  if  he  did  not  shorten  their  hours 
of  work.  "  He  is  a  very  nice  fellow,"  one  of  the  boys 
wrote  home,  "  and  never  talks  philosophy  to  us."  And 
they  followed  him  about  like  a  pack  of  dogs. 

"  Mr.  Buckle,  when  he  was  here,  was  a  jolly  chap," 
was  the  description  of  him  in  a  letter  home,  and  the  boys 
wrote  to  tell  him  how  they  had  enjoyed  his  visit.  He  an- 
swered from  Brighton : 

"  18th  September,  1860. 

"  MY  DEAE  BOYS  :  I  received  your  letter  this  morning 
with  great  pleasure,  as  it  showed  that  you  had  not  forgot- 
ten me ;  and  it  is  always  agreeable  not  to  be  forgotten. 
The  next  time  I  stay  at  Carshalton,  all  three  of  you  will,  I 
hope,  be  at  Mr.  Capel's,  and  we  shall  be  as  merry  as  ever. 
And  I  expect  that  before  then  you  will  have  learned  to  go 
up  the  chimney  in  the  way  I  told  you  of.  I  have  not  tried 
it  myself,  but  I  hear  that  it  .is  very  pleasant,  and  it  must 
be  funny  to  see  a  fellow  covered  with  black  gradually  ris- 


LETTER  TO  MRS.  GREY.  295 

ing  out  of  the  chimney  at  the  top  of  the  house.  Mind  you 
don't  do  too  many  lessons  ;  it's  very  bad  to  work  too  hard, 
and  particularly  unwholesome  for  boys,  especially  when 
they  are  growing. 

"  The  weather  here  is  very  wet  and  disagreeable,  and 
so  windy  that  I  had  my  hat  blown  off  yesterday,  and  very 
nearly  lost  it  in  the  sea.  But  I  was  too  quick,  and,  after 
a  sharp  race,  I  succeeded  in  capturing  it.  Such  things 
never  happened  to  me  at  Carshalton.  And  now  I  must 
say  good-by,  because  I  have  my  lessons  to  do,  and  as  Zam 
not  growing  I  have  no  excuse  for  being  idle,  as  you  have." 

From  Brighton,  he  also  wrote  to  Mrs.  Grey,  as  fol- 
lows : 

"BRIGHTON,  5th  October,  1860. 

"  MY  DEAK  MKS.  GKEY  :  Without  stopping  to  make  in- 
quiries, I  have  no  hesitation  in  answering  your  question  at 
once,  by  saying  that  unless  a  German  master  has  a  good 
connection  to  start  with  he  has  no  reasonable  chance  of 
succeeding  here.  The  great  number  of  schools  here  have 
attracted  so  many  masters  that  the  competition  is  immense. 
I  know  two  German  masters  here,  one  of  them  an  able 
and  very  learned  man,  Dr.  Euge,  the  translator  of  my 
work,  and  I  have  in  this  way  heard  something  of  the  pros- 
pects and  usances  of  teachers.  Until  about  the  middle  of 
October  there  are  comparatively  few  persons  here  whom  I 
know ;  but  I  will  bear  your  request  in  mind,  and  make 
inquiries  from  some  of  the  residents  when  they  return  to 
Brighton. 

"  Should  I  see  cause  to  change  my  opinion,  I  will  write 
again — otherwise  you  will  suppose  that  I  have  heard  no- 
thing fresh. 


296  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  I  wish  you  had  told  me  how  Miss  Shirreff  is,  and  if 
she  enjoyed  her  trip  abroad.  Pray  make  my  kindest  re- 
membrances to  her  and  to  Mr.  Grey. 

"  "We  shall,  I  hope,  often  meet  in  London,  as  you  are 
going  back  so  soon ;  and  I  also  shall  be  in  town  late  in 
November,  in  order  to  go  to  press.  I  feel  tolerably  strong, 
and  am  able  to  do  a  good  deal  of  work.  The  next  volume 
is  actually  finished,  save  the  mechanical  part  of  copying 
the  notes  for  the  press.  I  am  now  meditating  my  third 
volume,  and  trying  to  see  my  way  to  the  arrangement  of 
the  different  topics  which  the  civilization  of  America  and 
Germany  naturally  suggest. 

"  I  have  waited  till  the  end  of  my  letter  to  tell  you 
how  glad  I  was  to  hear  from  you  ;  because  I  wished  also 
to  say  that  your  reproach  seems  hardly  fair.  If  it  is  a  long 
time  since  you  have  heard  from  me,  it  is  a  long  time  since 
I  have  heard  from  you.  The  great  and  constant  pressure 
of  my  own  work  makes  me  feel  letter-writing  extremely 
onerous  ;  and  I  have  accustomed  myself  to  expect  that  my 
friends  will  make  allowance  for  this — most  of  them  do 
make  allowance." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  13th  December,  1860. 
"  MY  DEAR  Miss  SHTRKEFF  :  I  have  this  moment  re- 
ceived your  letter,  and  am  indeed  grieved  to  hear  such  an 

account  of  G .     Poor  little  fellow!     I  had  fancied, 

from  what  you  told  me,  that  he  was  really  getting  better ; 
but  such  continued  prostration  is  alarming.  Most  earnest- 
ly do  I  trust  that  his  life  may  be  spared.  I  can  not  tell 
you  how  much  I  feel  for  your  sister  and  her  husband. 
Give  my  kindest  love  to  them,  and  pray,  dear  Miss  Shir- 


FUKTHER  ILLNESS.  297 

reff,  let  me  have  ONLY  ONE  LINE  from  you  when  you  get  to 
Halstead,  saying  how  they  all  are,  and  what  you  think  of 

G 's  appearance.    That  such  things  should  i>e  hanging 

over  us,  threatening  at  every  turn  of  life,  is  too  much. 
They  only  are  wise  who  can  harden  their  hearts. 

"  I  am  working  very  hard,  and  apparently  without  in- 
convenience ;  but  every  part  except  my  head  is  very  ill. 

If  it  would  not  be  asking  too  much  of  Mrs.  T ,  I  should 

like  to  have  the  whole  of  La  Fuente,  as  well  as  Martignac 
'  Sur  la  Revolution.'  You  know  that  I  am  very  particu- 
lar about  books,  and  I  will  take  the  greatest  care  of  them." 

"  BRIGHTON,  November,  1860. 

"  MY  DEAB  MKS.  Bow  YEAR  i  ...  I  am  still  at  Brigh- 
ton, too  weak  and  ill  to  travel.  When  I  shall  get  to  town 
I  really  can  not  tell.  ...  I  see  too  surely  how  changed  I 
ain  in  every  way,  and  how  impossible  it  will  be  for  me 
ever  to  complete  schemes  to  which  I  once  thought  myself 
fully  equal.  My  next  volume  is  far  from  being  ready  for 
the  press ;  and  when  it  is  ready  it  will  be  very  inferior  to 
what  either  you  or  I  expected." 

"BRIGHTON,  29th  November,  1860. 

"  MY  DEAK  CAPEL  :  I  have  been  very  unwell  for  some 
days,  and  now,  to  add  to  everything  else,  I  have  got  the 
mumps.  I  shall  consequently  not  be  in  London  till  the 
latter  part  of  next  week." 

Before  he  left  Brighton  he  had  an  interview  with  Mr. 
Holyoake,  who  had  sent  him  a  pamphlet  a  year  ago,  and 
now  wanted  him  to  bring  out  a  cheap  edition  of  his  "  His- 
tory," leaving  out  the  notes.  He  also  arranged  with  Mr. 


298  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

Parker  to  sell  him  the  edition  of  3,000  copies  of  his  second 
volume  for  £600 ;  and,  immediately  on  his  return  to  Lon- 
don, on  December  6th,  "  weak  and  depressed,"  set  to  work- 
ing about  eight  hours  a  day,  and  began  sending  MS.  to  the 
printers  on  January  4th. 

At  Easter  he  made  a  short  stay  at  St.  Leonards,  with 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Huth ;  but,  since  an  eye-witness  is  the  best 
witness,  we  will  leave  Mrs.  Huth  to  give  an  account  of  his 
visit  in  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

"Women  and  Knowledge — What  to  read — Fine  Arts  and  Civilization — Immor- 
tality— Suicide — Stay  at  St.  Leonards — Dinner,  18th  April — Volume  11. 
approaching  Conclusion — Epochs  in  Literature — Further  Illness — Second 
Stay  at  Carshalton — Conversation  with  Mrs.  Huth — Tour  in  Wales — In 
Scotland— Successes  of  the  "  History  "—Stay  at  Sutton— Preparation  for 
Egypt. 

IT  was  in  1857  that  we  became  acquainted  with  Henry 
Thomas  Buckle.  Long  before  we  had  heard  him  talked 
of  by  an  enthusiastic  friend,  who  told  us  that  Buckle  was 
then  writing  the  "  History  of  Civilization."  Our  friend, 
Mr.  Capel,  would  not  borrow  a  book  from  us  to  read  with- 
out first  asking  "  my  friend  Buckle  "  whether  it  was  worth 
reading,  as  lie  knew  all  books.  If  I  praised  a  favorite 
author,  I  was  told  that  my  admiration  was  misplaced,  as 
"  my  friend  Buckle  "  saw  imperfections  in  him.  "  But 
would  not  Mr.  Huth  like  to  call  on  my  friend  Buckle  \ " 
Mr.  Huth  decidedly  objected,  saying  that,  if  that  gentle- 
man's library  contained  22,000  volumes,  and  he  had  read 
them  all,  as  Mr.  Capel  assured  us,  it  would  be  an  imperti- 
nence for  a  man,  who  had  not  anything  very  extraordinary 
to  recommend  him,  to  intrude  upon  him.  I  was  very  glad 
of  this  answer,  for  I  hated  that  "  friend  Buckle,"  whose 
name  was  constantly  in  Mr.  CapePs  mouth,  and  bored  me 
intensely,  who  was  always  put  forward  to  contradict  me, 
who  was  said  to  know  everything,  and  who  had  seemingly 


300  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

done  nothing.  We  were,  therefore,  considerably  surprised 
when  Mr.  Capel  came  one  day  and  said,  "  I  have  told  my 
friend  Buckle  that  you  wish  very  much  to  make  his  ac- 
quaintance, and  he  will  be  glad  to  see  you  if  you  like  to 
call  upon  him."  My  husband  looked  very  black,  but  he 
had  nothing  for  it  but  to  go  to  59  Oxford  Terrace,  where 
he  was  told  Mr.  Buckle  was  not  at  home,  and  he  left  his 
card.  Later,  when  our  dear  friend  made  his  last  stay  with 
us,  I  told  him  how  we  had  been  forced  into  our  acquaint- 
ance with  him,  and  he  explained  that  he  had  only  agreed 
to  see  us  as  he  thought  it  would  be  of  advantage  to  Mr. 
Capel,  who  was  going  to  have  a  son  of  ours  at  his  school. 
At  that  time  he  had  never  expected  our  acquaintance  to 
develop  into  a  friendship. 

One  morning  Mr.  Capel  came  in,  looking  very  much 
excited,  and  asked  whether  I  was  going  to  remain  at  home 
that  afternoon,  for,  if  so,  he  would  call  with  Mr.  Buckle. 
When  he  came,  the  conversation  turned  chiefly  on  educa- 
tion, especially  on  the  bad  methods  in  which  languages  are 
generally  taught.  Mr.  Capel,  I  think  to  give  Mr.  Buckle 
a  good  opinion  of  me,  told  him  that  I  was  studying  min- 
eralogy. Upon  this  Mr.  Buckle  immediately  began  to 
banter  me  about  it,  and  advised  me  rather  to  read  the  In- 
troductions to  the  works  of  Rome  de  Lisle  and  of  Haiiy, 
without  going  further — "  For,"  he  said,  "  as  you  neither 
intend  to  give  lectures  or  deal  in  minerals,  it  is  a  waste  of 
time  for  you  to  learn  to  distinguish  felspar  from  quartz ; 
it  is  not  for  women  to  go  deeply  into  the  technicalities  of 
science,  but  only  de  les  effleurer."  I  told  him,  another 
time,  that  I  had  only  been  looking  into  the  subject,  as  one 
of  my  boys  had  begun  collecting  minerals,  and  I  wished  if 


WHAT  TO  BEAD.  301 

possible  to  foster  any  nascent  taste  for  science  ;  and  he  then 
quite  approved  of  what  I  had  done,  and  told  me  that  a 
friend  of  his,  who  had  two  charming  little  b#ys,  always 
asked  his  advice  about  their  education,  though  the  eldest 
was  then  only  five  years  old.  All  the  advice  he  gave  her 
was  to  cultivate  herself.  The  atmosphere  of  a  cultured 
mother  was  more  beneficial  than  anything  else  to  children. 

At  Mr.  Buckle's  first  visit  he  also  spoke  of  the  immod- 
erate admiration  most  people  have  of  the  past ;  and  that 
was  why,  the  more  remote  the  times,  the  bigger,  better,  and 
longer-lived  the  people  were  supposed  to  have  been — a  sub- 
ject then  new  to  me,  as  his  first  volume  had  not  yet  been 
published. 

Mr.  Buckle  had  on  a  thick,  fluffy  overcoat,  which  I 
never  saw  again  till  we  accompanied  him  to  Southampton, 
where  he  was  to  embark  for  Egypt  with  our  sons.  He 
sat  leaning  back  on  a  sofa,  which  pushed  his  coat  collar  up 
over  his  ears,  and  gave  him  the  appearance  of  a  short,  fat 
man. 

The  next  time  I  saw  Mr.  Buckle  I  asked  his  advice 
about  historical  reading.  He  remarked  on  that  occasion, 
that  most  people  read  too  much  and  think  too  little ;  and 
said  that  it  was  necessary  to  take  copious  notes  while  read- 
ing, and  look  them  through  very  often.  Of  Prescott  he 
observed,  that  that  part  of  his  works  which  treats  of  the 
Netherlands  was  inferior  to  the  Spanish  part,  because  he 
had  never  taken  the  trouble  to  learn  Dutch,  and,  therefore, 
had  been  unable  to  study  those  documents  and  works 
which  were  as  yet  untranslated.  He  advised  me  to  read 
Lingard,  not  only  because  he  was  a  good  writer,  but  also 
because  I  lived  in  an  atmosphere  of  Protestant  opinion, 


302  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

and,  therefore,  ought  to  be  careful  to  get  acquainted  with 
the  opposite  views.  On  French  history  he  recommended 
Lavallee,  since,  he  said,  in  his  four  volumes  were  contained 
all  the  most  valuable  facts  related  in  the  sixteen  of  Sis- 
mondi. 

I  saw  from  that  very  first  visit  that  Mr.  Buckle's  in- 
tellect was  something  extraordinary.  But  he  seemed  to 
me  a  cold,  unfeeling  man,  with  no  sympathy  for  individ- 
uals, and  caring  only  for  what  was  beneficial  for  mankind 
as  a  mass.  "When,  soon  after  his  first  volume  was  pub- 
lished, I  read  his  biographical  sketch  of  Edmund  Burke,  I 
began  to  take  a  different  view,  but  still  thought  that  his 
tenderness  could  be  roused  only  by  individuals  of  extraor- 
dinary intellectual  powers.  By  degrees  I  got  more  and 
more  puzzled  about  him.  I  kept  a  note-book,  from  which 
I  was  prepared  categorically  to  question  him  whenever  I 
knew  he  was  coming;  and  the  kindness,  patience,  care, 
and  sympathy  with  which  he  answered  greatly  astonished 
me.  It  was  a  rule  with  him,  never  to  pay  more  than  one 
visit  a  day  among  his  friends — on  acquaintances  he  only 
left  cards — and  his  visits,  when  they  happened  to  be  to 
me,  generally  lasted  about  twenty  minutes.  But  if,  on 
any  subject  on  which  we  happened  to  be  talking,  I  was  not 
yet  quite  clear,  he  went  on  combating  my  arguments  point 
by  point,  and  never  moved  from  his  chair  until  he  had 
made  it  perfectly  plain  to  me.  But  no  sooner  had  I 
grasped  it  than  he  took  up  his  hat,  said  good-by,  and  hur- 
riedly left. 

The  conversations  which  I  had  in  this  way  with  him 
made  me  see  that  there  were  two  Buckles — one  cold  and 
unfeeling  as  fate,  who  invariably  took  the  highest  and 


FINE  ARTS  AND  CIVILIZATION.  303 

widest  view,  to  whom  the  good  of  the  individual  was  as 
nothing  compared  to  the  good  of  the,  mass.  This  man 
was  heard  in  the  "  History  of  Civilization,"  aiid  at  dinner- 
tables  where  many  people  were  present.  The  other  Buckle 
was  tender,  and  capable  of  feeling  every  vibration  of  a 
little  child's  heart ;  self-sacrificing  to  a  degree  which  he 
would  have  blamed  in  another  ;  and  habitually  concentrat- 
ing his  great  intellect  on  the  consequences  of  individual 
actions  to  the  actor.  On  these  occasions  he  always  took 
the  proximate  view,  and  recommended  it  in  the  practice 
of  life ;  for  to  foresee  the  remote  consequences  of  our  ac- 
tions he  considered  impossible. 

In  reading  the  first  volume  of  his  work  I  was  struck 
by  the  almost  entire  absence  of  any  mention  of  the  fine 
arts,  and  asked  him  whether  he  thought  they  had  but  lit- 
tle influence  on  civilization?  "Yes,"  he  did  think  so. 
They  had  civilized  individuals  indeed  ;  but  never  nations. 
Their  time  has  not  come  yet.  And,  going  on  to  talk  of 
the  decline  of  the  fine  arts  in  modern  times,  he  pointed 
out  that  when  they  stood  highest  men  had  only  just  begun 
to  investigate  the  laws  of  nature,  and  all  the  highest  intel- 
lects were  absorbed  in  ai*t.  Now  they  are  absorbed  in  the 
discovery  of  natural  laws,  and  the  arts  will  not  again  rise 
until  these  are  practically  all  discovered.  Then  the  great- 
est men  will  again  have  leisure  to  turn  their  attention  to 
art.  Leonardo  da  Yinci  was  the  greatest  intellect  of  his 
age.  Had  he  been  born  now,  he  would  not  be  an  artist, 
but  a  natural  philosopher.  One  of  the  greatest  poets  of 
the  present  time  was  Faraday — surely  a  man  need  not 
write  poems  to  prove  himself  a  poet  ?  Had  he  not  shown 
his  great  powers  of  imagination  in  his  discoveries  \  The 


304:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

last  problems  which  would  remain  for  us  to  solve  would 
be  those  of  mind  and  of  matter.  And  did  he  think  they 
would  ever  be  solved  ?  We  had  no  right  to  put  a  limit  to 
the  human  intellect.  Of  Cuvier,  who  considers  "  L'influ- 
ence  du  corps  sur  Fame  "  a  "  probleme  insoluble  hors  de 
la  portee  de  1'esprit  humain,"  he  said :  "  If  Cuvier  said 
this,  he  did  not  see  beyond  his  own  horizon." 

He  had  shown  in  his  "  History  "  how  absurd  it  was  to 
offer  up  prayers  in  church  for  rain ;  how  then,  I  asked 
him,  is  it  with  prayer  for  recovery  from  illness?  He 
owned  his  contempt  for  general  "  prayers  of  the  congrega- 
tion "  for  recovery,  and  also  that  he  himself  did  not  be- 
lieve prayer  would  at  all  alter  the  course  of  disease; 
"  but,"  he  said,  "  if  you  have  a  dear  friend  who  is  ill,  it  is 
your  duty  to  do  everything  in  your  power  to  promote  re- 
covery ;  and,  if  you  believe  that  prayer  is  efficacious,  it  is 
right  for  you  to  pray." 

I  then  went  on  to  say  that  philosophers  talk  of  the 
general  increase  of  happiness,  but  what  comfort  have  they 
for  the  individual  $  "  The  first  answer  I  am  going  to  give 
you  to  this,"  he  replied,  "  is  that  it  is  the  business  of  phi- 
losophers to  discover  and  propagate  truth,  and  not  to  give 
comfort.  However,  they  tell  us  that  there  is  no  future 
punishment,  and  that  is  a  great  comfort.  Society  could 
not  exist  if  it  were  not  to  punish  crime ;  but  we  have  no 
right  to  blame  the  criminal  who  has  become  what  he  is 
through  a  series  of  events  over  which  he  has  had  no  real 
control.  Knowing  this,  how  can  we  believe  that  the  Great 
Causer  of  all  these  events  can  at  last  punish  His  crea- 
ture ? "  "  How  do  we  know  that  there  is  a  future  state  \  " 
I  inquired.  "  Know  it  we  do  not,"  he  answered,  "  for  it 


SUICIDE.  305 

is  transcendental ;  but  our  instincts  lead  us  to  believe." 
"  And  what  do  you  think  on  the  question  of  personality 
in  a  future  state  ? "  I  asked.  "  What  do  I  think  on  that 
subject  ? "  he  said,  seeming  rather  interested  in  the  ques- 
tion. "  I  believe  that  what  we  have  done  here  will  not 
be  lost  to  us,  but  also  that  the  mind  of  the  philosopher 
and  that  of  the  idiot  will  be  equal  after  death.  The  dif- 
ference we  now  see  in  them  is  owing  to  the  material 
through  which  the  intellect  filters.  If  mind  is  immortal 
it  can  not  really  be  diseased.  Philosophers  do  not  like 
this  idea." 

"  Why  is  it  a  sin  to  commit  suicide  ? "  "  Because  in 
ninety-nine  cases  in  a  hundred  it  is  an  act  either  of  impa- 
tience or  of  cowardice.  As  long  as  a  single  being  exists 
whom  our  death  would  pain,  we  have  no  right  to  kill  our- 
selves. Did  any  one  exist  whose  death  would  hurt  no- 
body, and  who  was  afflicted  with  a  very  painful  and  in- 
curable disease,  I  really  see  no  immorality  in  his  quietly 
taking  a  dose  of  laudanum.  The  reasons  I  have  given 
justify  society  in  branding  suicide  as  a  crime,  just  as  a 
parent  is  justified  in  severely  punishing  a  lie.  For  a  lie, 
too,  is  in  most  cases  told  from  a  bad  motive,  though  it 
need  not  necessarily  be  wrong.  If  I  were  to  say  '  two 
and  three  make  six,'  what  harm  have  I  done  ? " 

The  maxim  commonly  attributed  to  the  Jesuits,  Mr. 
Buckle  said,  had  not  originated  with  them,  nor  did  they 
alone  act  upon  it.  "  In  so  far  as  physical  pain  is  con- 
cerned, surgeons,  for  example,  constantly  act  upon  it ;  for 
what  is  taking  off  a  limb  but  doing  evil  that  good  may 
come  ?  We  practice  it,  too,  in  the  moral  world  every  time 
we  deprive  a  child  of  a  pleasure  as  a  punishment,  or  be- 

20 


306  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

cause  it  would  be  dangerous  to  it."  He  talked  of  the 
beneficial  influence  of  pleasure,  not  only  in  his  book,  but 
also  in  his  conversations.  "  It  is  a  serious  responsibility," 
he  said  to  me  once,  when  I  asked  his  advice,  "  to  curtail 
another's  pleasure."  And,  on  being  told  that  a  very  deli- 
cate old  lady  had  gone  to  a  very  cold  part  of  the  country 
to  pass  her  Christmas  with  her  daughter,  he  remarked  that 
the  gratification  of  her  will  would  probably  benefit  her 
health. 

Even  while  he  was  working  eight  hours  a  day  at  his 
second  volume,  he  could  find  time  to  give  advice  to  a 
friend.  He  made  an  appointment  to  call  on  me  to  answer 
more  fully  some  questions  which  I  had  asked  him  in  Mrs. 
Grey's  drawing-room,  and  kept  the  appointment  with  his 
usual  punctuality.  He  staid  nearly  an  hour,  and  afterward 
wrote  to  Mr.  Man  waring  to  put  my  name  among  the  sub- 
scribers for  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  "First  Principles," 
which  he  had  given  me  a  great  desire  to  read.  But  he 
warned  me  never  to  take  it  in  hand  when  I  was  tired — a 
piece  of  advice  he  had  formerly  given  to  me  in  regard  to 
Shakespeare.  "  The  imagination,"  he  said,  "  is  a  delicate 
thing,  and  it  must  be  carefully  dealt  with."  On  my  re- 
marking that  in  Germany  there  is  an  idea  prevalent  that 
Shakespeare  is  more  valued  there  than  in  his  own  country, 
he  replied,  "  The  Germans  have  some  right  to  say  so,  for 
they  were  the  first  to  write  on  'Shakespeare.'  Before 
Coleridge,  no  Englishman  had  written  anything  worth 
reading  on  t  Shakespeare.'  "  "When  I  asked  him  whether 
I  should  read  the  German  critics,  he  told  me  to  read  Tieck 
and  Schlegel  if  I  had  time,  but  it  is  more  important  to 
know  "  Shakespeare  "  than  to  know  what  has  been  writ- 


STAY  AT  ST.   LEONARDS.  307 

ten  on  him.     From  ten  years  of  age  to  eighty,  no  better 
book  could  be  taken  in  hand. 

The  printers  were  going  to  stop  work  for  about  a  week 
at  Easter,  and  Mr.  Buckle  having  heard  that  we  were  go- 
ing to  make  a  stay  at  St.  Leonards,  asked  me  a  great  many 
questions  about  the  hotels  there,  and  said  that  he  would 
join  us  in  the  hotel  to  which  we  had  decided  on  going,  if 
the  printers  did  not  play  him  false.  I  wondered  that  he 
preferred  St.  Leonards  to  Brighton,  which  place,  he  had 
once  told  me,  always  set  him  up  again  in  three  days,  how- 
ever fatigued  he  was,  and  that  the  strongest  east  wind  was 
never  too  much  for  him.  "  This  is  an  exceptional  case," 
he  said.  "  I  want  a  change,  but  I  am  very  anxious  to  run 
as  little  risk  as  possible  of  catching  cold,  as  this  would  re- 
tard the  publication  of  my  volume.  St.  Leonards  being  a 
milder  climate,  there  is  not  the  same  risk."  About  a  week 
afterward  Mr.  Capel  wrote,  asking  us  to  secure  a  room  for 
Mr.  Buckle  in  our  hotel.  "We  were  not,  however,  at  an 
hotel,  as  we  had  been  tempted  by  an  exceedingly  well- 
situated  house,  and  all  our  endeavors  to  get  him  a  room 
for  Easter  week  proved  fruitless.  To  show  how  sorry  we 
were  at  our  ill  success,  I  mentioned  that  we  had  one  spare 
room,  which  we  would  offer  him  with  pleasure,  only  that 
it  was  on  the  third  floor,  and  with  a  back  view.  It  was, 
therefore,  with  some  surprise,  more  mixed,  perhaps,  with 
fear  than  pleasure,  that  we  received  the  following  note  by 
return  of  post : 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  23d  March,  1861. 
"My  DEAR  MKS.  HUTH:   I  have  just   received  your 
letter,  and  it  is  so  extremely  kind  that  I  can  not  hesitate 


308  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

to  say  yes  to  it.  Unless  the  printers  play  me  false  I  could 
be  with  you  by  an  early  train  on  Thursday  next  (the  day 
before  Good  Friday),  or  possibly  even  on  Wednesday 
evening ;  but  I  think  it  would  be  safer  to  say  Thursday. 
If  this  suits  you,  please  to  let  me  have  a  line  to  say  so,  and 
also  tell  me  what  time  the  trains  leave,  and  which  are  the 
fast  ones.  Must  I  go  from  London  Bridge  ?  Or  can  I  go 
from  Pimlico  station  ? 

"I  shall  be  obliged  to  return  home  on  Tuesday  or 
Wednesday  after  Good  Friday,  when  the  printers  will 
again  begin  to  work. 

"  You  will,  I  know,  be  careful  to  have  the  bed  thor- 
oughly aired.  This  I  should  not  mention,  except  that 
lodging-houses  at  this  time  of  the  year  have  often  been 
long  unoccupied,  and  I  am  subject  to  pains  in  the  limbs, 
which  are  half  rheumatic  and  half  neuralgic. 

"  The  bedroom  being  high  up  is  no  objection  to  me. 
On  the  contrary,  I  prefer  it  as  being  more  airy.  You 
must  not  put  yourself  at  all  out  of  the  way  for  me,  or 
make  any  difference." 

We  tried  to  make  him  as  independent  as  possible,  with 
a  separate  sitting-room,  and  the  provision  of  ink  and  blot- 
ting-book. 

But  during  his  whole  stay  he  never  once  entered  the 
room.  When  going  out  for  a  walk  or  drive  we  never 
asked  whether  he  would  come  with  us.  Sometimes  he 
invited  himself  for  a  drive,  but  his  walks  he  always  took 
alone.  Once,  indeed,  he  met  my  husband  on  the  beach, 
and  they  walked  on  together,  talking  on  political  econ- 
omy. Mr.  Buckle  got  interested  in  the  questions  he  was 


ILLNESS.  309 

asked,  and  went  on  walking  and  talking  for  an  hour ;  but 
when  he  came  home  he  was  quite  ill  for  the  rest  of  the 
day.  My  husband  did  not  then  know  how  slight  a  frame 
bore  that  powerful  intellect ;  he  himself  had  forgotten  it 
in  the  interest  of  talking.  He  retired  to  his  bedroom  to 
sleep  if  possible  for  a  couple  of  hours.  "When  the  two 
hours  were  nearly  over  my  husband  went  softly  up  stairs 
to  see  if  he  was  moving ;  but  before  he  reached  his  door 
he  heard  our  landlady's  children  singing  loudly  and  jump- 
ing violently,  as  it  seemed  just  over  Mr.  Buckle's  room. 
He  stopped  the  noise,  and  then  went  to  inquire  if  he  had 
slept.  Mr.  Buckle  said,  "  No,  the  noise  had  prevented  it." 
Why  did  he  not  ring  the  bell  ?  "  Oh  no,  poor  little 
things  !  It  was  their  time  for  singing  and  jumping,  not 
their  sleeping  time."  . 

The  fullness  of  his  mind  was  something  wonderful. 
Every  evening  the  talk  turned  on  a  different  subject.  One 
evening,  in  a  sentimental  mood,  he  would  talk  of  poetry. 
"  Richard  II. "  he  considered  the  most  poetical  of  Shake- 
peare's  compositions ;  and  then,  as  he  stood  leaning 
against  the  mantel-piece,  he  gave  us  that  speech,  "  No  mat- 
ter where,  of  comfort  no  man  speak."  I  doubt  whether 
any  one  has  heard  it  on  the  stage  rendered  in  anything  ap- 
proaching the  perfection  that  we  had  in  that  little  lodging- 
house  parlor.  His  eyes  started  forth,  his  looks  were  ghast- 
ly, but  he  neither  gesticulated  nor  moved  about,  as  some 
actors  do.  He  did  not  even  raise  his  voice  above  the  or- 
dinary pitch,  but  tuned  it  in  a  manner  that  made  us  feel 
almost  as  miserable  for  the  time  as  the  unhappy  king. 
And  then  going  on  from  one  piece  to  another,  he  quoted 
those  lines  of  Corneille  : 


310  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

"Et  comme  notre  esprit,  jusqu'au  dernier  soupir, 
Toujours  vers  quelque  objet  pousse  quelque  de"sir, 
II  se  ramene  en  soi,  n'ayant  plus  ou  se  prendre ; 
Et  mont6  sur  le  faite,  il  aspire  a  descendre. 
J'ai  souhaite  I'empire,  et  j'y  suis  parvenu; 
Mais  en  le  souhaitant  je  ne  1'ai  pas  connu. 
Dans  sa  possession  j'ai  biouv6  pour  tous  charmes, 
D'effroyable  soucis,  d'e"ternelles  allarmes, 
Mille  ennemis  secrets,  la  mort  a  tous  propos, 
Point  de  plaisir  sans  trouble,  et  jamais  de  repos.'" 

He  then  went  on  to  Milton  : 

"Thus  with  the  year 
Seasons  return  ;  but  not  to  me  returns 
Day,  or  the  sweet  approach  of  even  or  morn, 
Or  sight  of  vernal  bloom,  or  summer's  rose. 
Or  flocks,  or  herds,  or  human  face  divine ; 
But  cloud  instead,  and  ever-during  dark 
Surrounds  me,  from  the  cheerful  ways  of  men 
Cut  off,  and,  for  the  book  of  knowledge  fair, 
Presented  with  a  universal  blank 
Of  nature's  works,  to  me  expunged  and  rased, 
And  wisdom  at  one  entrance  quite  shut  out. 
So  much  the  rather  thou,  celestial  light, 
Shine  inward,  and  the  mind  through  all  her  powers 
Irradiate ;  there  plant  eyes ;  all  mist  from  thence 
Purge  and  disperse,  that  I  may  see  and  tell 
Of  things  invisible  to  mortal  sight." 

As  he  finished,  my  husband  asked  him  some  question, 
but  our  poor  friend  had  no  voice  to  answer  it ;  for  several 
minutes  he  was  almost  in  a  fainting  state,  and,  had  he  not 
been  on  the  sofa,  would  have  fallen.  It  was  plain  that  he 

1  "  Cinna,"  act.  II.,  scene  1. 


FULL  OF  FUN  AND  ANECDOTE.  3H 

was  too  painfully  reminded  by  these  passages  of  his  own 
bereaved  state. 

But  the  next  evening  he  would  be  full  of  fun  and  an- 
ecdote. His  reading  of  French  memoirs  had  furnished 
him  with  a  number  of  amusing  stories,  and  among  others 
he  told  us  many  that  Lord  Lyndhurst  had  got  from  Tal- 
leyrand. They  were  mostly  clever  answers  of  the  witty 
Frenchman.  Another  time  we  asked  him  a  few  questions 
about  the  children,  and  it  led  to  special  medical  advice  for 
every  one  of  our  little  flock :  the  diet  requisite  for  each  dif- 
ferent age  and  constitution,  the  amount  of  exercise,  of  sleep, 
etc.,  etc.,  were  all  considered.  Later  I  got  much  of  the  ad- 
vice confirmed  by  Dr.  Mayo,  and  none  at  variance  with  it. 

That  Easter,  on  account  of  the  recent  death  of  the 
Duchess  of  Kent,  everybody  was  in  mourning,  with  the 
exception  of  Mr.  Buckle.  "  People  do  question  me  about 
it  sometimes,"  he  said,  "  but  I  always  answer  that  I  never 
do  wear  mourning  for  anybody  but  those  who  have  been 
my  personal  friends."  "  "What  with  going  against  the 
stream  in  this  way,"  said  one  of  us,  "  and  the  opinions  ex- 
pressed in  your  book,  you  will  never  be  Lord  Buckle." 
uNo,"  he  answered,  "nor  do  I  wish  it."  Yet  he  greatly 
admired  the  character  of  the  Duchess  of  Kent,  and  the 
way  in  which  she  had  educated  the  Princess  Yictoria ;  re- 
specting which  he  told  us  how  the  Princess,  having  spent 
all  her  pocket-money  at  a  bazaar  at  Tunbridge  Wells,  saw 
something  that  she  wanted  very  much  to  have,  but  could 
not  buy.  The  stall-keeper  at  once  requested  her  to  take 
it,  and  pay  when  she  pleased.  "  Did  not  you  hear  the 
Princess  say  that  she  had  spent  her  allowance !  "  interposed 
her  governess,  who  had  to  act  according  to  the  Duchess's 


312  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

instructions.  The  stall-keeper,  quite  taken  aback,  asked 
to  be  allowed  to  put  the  article  aside  until  the  beginning 
of  next  month.  This  was  granted,  and  the  Princess  came 
on  the  first  day,  paid  for  her  parcel,  and  took  it  home. 
"  That  is  educating,"  added  Mr.  Buckle,  with  a  little  severe 
look  at  me,  when  he  had  finished  the  story.  "  The  conse- 
quence is,"  he  went  on,  "  that  the  Queen  has  not  once  had 
to  come  before  Parliament  to  have  her  debts  paid,  as 
former  sovereigns  were  wont  to  do."  He  did  not  consider 
that  I  was  strict  enough.  For  instance,  my  youngest  child 
was  rather  shy  with  strangers,  and  I  ought  to  get  her  out 
of  it — send  her  with  the  nurse  into  the  kitchen — have  her 
in  the  drawing-room  always,  and  so  on.  At  the  same  time 
he  preferred  a  want  of  severity  to  anything  approaching 
cruelty  to  children.  The  tone  in  which  he  told  us  how 
"Wesley's  mother  prided  herself  on  having  forced  her  chil- 
dren while  yet  very  young  to  bear  pain  without  any  out- 
ward sign  showed  that  he  by  no  means  admired  her. 
Then,  going  on  to  talk  of  education  generally,  he  said  that 
girls'  schools  were  nearly  all  of  them  bad,  for  they  were 
mostly  kept  by  unmarried  women,  who  have  no  knowledge 
of  the  world,  and  who  are  afraid  of  everything  above 

mediocrity.     "When  was  sixteen  I  gave  her,  as  a 

birthday  present,  Moliere's  works.  Soon  after  I  heard 
that  her  schoolmistress  had  immediately  taken  the  book 
away.  I  then  made  inquiries  as  to  what  authors  were 
granted  access  to  that  respectable  establishment."  And 
here  Mr.  Buckle  mentioned  a  number  of  second  and  third- 
rate  poets,  among  which  I  only  remember  the  name  of 
Gray,  while  the  forbidden  works  included  all  the  greatest 
of  French  and  English  authors.  "  "What  harm  can  these 


CONVERSATION  WITH  MRS.   HUTH.  313 

great  works  of  genius  do? "  lie  continued.  "  Any  girl  who 
has  been  brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  refinement  will 
shrink,  if  anything,  from  any  coarse  passage  she-may  come 
across.  The  youngest  schoolboys  are  allowed  to  read  them 
as  much  as  they  like  ;  and  which  grow  up  the  most  refined 
men,  these  schoolboys,  or  the  uneducated  poorer  classes  ? 

"  How  is  it,"  I  once  asked  Mr.  Buckle,  "  that  you,  who 
are  so  fond  of  refinement,  should  be  so  severe  on  those 
who  spend  much  thought  or  money  on  dress — more  severe 
even  than  on  those  who  waste  the  same  amount  on  the 
decoration  of  their  houses  ? "  "  Because  the  first  has  by 
far  the  worst  consequences,"  he  answered.  "  Would  not 
a  greedy  woman  shock  you  more  than  a  vain  woman  ? "  I 
asked.  "  If  I  had  a  daughter,"  he  replied,  "  I  would  rather 
she  had  the  former  fault  of  the  two."  Anything  like  a 
show  of  diamonds  he  considered  vulgar,  as  it  seemed  to 
be  a  sort  of  flaunting  of  riches,  and  I,  therefore,  confessed 
in  fear  and  trembling  to  my  weakness  for  lace.  To  my 
great  relief  he  allowed  that  that  ornament  was  blameless. 
"  The  beauty  of  lace  is  insidious ;  for  ten  persons  who 
would  notice  diamonds,  perhaps  one  would  notice  lace." 

Talking  of  the  so-called  "  Working  Classes,"  Mr.  Buckle 
thought  that  they  would  always  exist,  but  would  be  better 
paid  than  they  now  are.  At  present  fortunes  are  still  un- 
equally divided.  It  is  not  right  that  any  man  should 
have  two  thousand  pounds  a  year  and  his  housemaid  only 
twenty.  Such  things,  however,  can  never  be  altered  but 
by  the  gradual  rise  of  the  standard  of  wages.  It  would 
avail  nothing  were  a  few  well-meaning  persons  to  give 
their  servants  higher  wages."  These  remarks  led  to  my 
telling  him  how  much  the  extravagance  of  my  coachman 


314  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

and  his  family  vexed  me,  and  that  I  was  not  all  sure  but 
that  it  was  my  duty  to  interfere  as  far  as  I  could.  "  Would 
your  coachman  like  your  advice  ? "  he  asked.  "  No,  he 
would  not."  "  Then  don't  give  it.  I  always  give  advice 
freely  when  I  am  asked,  but  not  otherwise,  excepting 
to  those  whom  I  love."  I  told  him  that  my  Viennese 
friends,  finding  me  ignorant  of  many  modern  works  of 
German  literature,  recommended  me  to  read  the  "  Augs- 
burger  Zeitung."  Should  I  follow  this  advice  or  not  ? 
The  answer  was  that  I  could  not  know  too  much,  and 
that  I  should  therefore  do  well  to  follow  their  advice,  if  I 
had  plenty  of  time.  Since,  however,  this  was  not  the 
case,  it  was  necessary  that  I  should  choose  carefully  what 
was  most  important  for  me  to  learn ;  and  among  these  the 
facts  related  in  the  "  Augsburger  Zeitung  "  could  hardly 
be  classed. 

"We  accompanied  him  to  the  station  when  he  was  leav- 
ing us,  and  saw  him  take  a  second-class  ticket,  which,  he 
told  us,  he  often  did.  "I  always  talk,"  he  said,  "and 
often  find  very  intelligent  people  in  those  carriages ;  the 
first-class  travelers  are  so  dull ;  directly  you  broach  a  sub- 
ject they  are  frightened."  Later  in  the  year,  when  he 
came  to  us  from  a  tour  in  Wales,  he  told  us  that  he  had 
picked  up  a  great  deal  of  information  in  this  way  from 
commercial  travelers,  who  generally  have  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  country  through  which  they  are  in  the  habit 
of  traveling. 

When  we  returned  to  town,  and  I  sent  him  a  few  things 
which  he  had  been  unable  to  get  into  his  portmanteau,  the 
messenger  came  back  with  some  proof-sheets  and  the  fol- 
lowing note : 


LETTER  TO  MRS.  HUTH.  315 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  3d  April,  1861. 

"  MY  DEAS  MES.  HUTH  :  I  think  it  a  great  sliame  that 
your  husband  should  have  so  much  the  start  of  you  as  to 
be  able  to  begin  niy  next  volume  a  whole  chapter  before 
you  ; a  and  as  I  hate  cheating  I  remedy  the  fraud  by  inclos- 
ing to  you  the  proof-sheets  of  that  chapter,  merely  begging 
that  you  will  return  them,  if  possible,  within  ten  days,  or 
at  all  events  a  fortnight  at  the  very  latest.  I  have  not  yet 
written  the  Table  of  Contents,  and  to  do  so  I  shall  need 
the  sheets. 

"  I  say  nothing  about  the  pleasure  which  my  visit  to 
you  has  given  me.  You  have  already  phrased  it :  '  Les 
femmes  devinent  tout.' 

"  "Will  you  say  to  your  husband,  with  my  very  kindest 
regards,  that,  if  he  wants  any  further  information  about  his 
proposed  course  of  reading,  he  must  not  scruple  to  write  to 
me  fully,  either  now  or  at  any  future  time.  However  busy 
I  may  be,  I  am  never  too  busy  to  attend  to  what  interests 
those  for  whom  I  have  a  real  regard." 

On  the  18th  of  April  he  dined  with  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Huth.  "We  were  a  party  of  ten,"  writes  the  latter, 
"  among  whom  were  Miss  Thackeray,  Mr.  Capel,  and  Mr. 
Roupell.  The  last-named  gentleman,  who  had  never  met 
Mr.  Buckle  before,  was  much  struck,  not  by  his  brilliancy, 
which  he  had  expected,  but  by  the  delightful  humor  which 
is  not  often  found  in  conjunction  with  such  severity  of 
thought.  Poor  Mr.  Capel,  as  the  representative  of  the 
clergy  among  us,  had  to  serve  as  butt  to  Mr.  Buckle's  clever 
sarcasms  against  them.  Mr.  Capel  defended  them  valiant- 

3  Mr.  Huth  looked  through  the  proofs  of  Chapter  I.  on  Spain. 


T 

316  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

ly>  by  enumerating  all  the  good  they  had  done  in  preserv- 
ing manuscripts,  softening  manners,  spreading  civiliza- 
tion, etc.,  etc. ;  but  at  the  end  of  the  discussion  Mr.  Buckle 
said,  quite  seriously,  that  he  considered  the  evil  inflicted 
by  the  clergy  on  mankind  outweighed  any  good  they  had 
done.  After  dinner  Miss  Thackeray  made  him  talk  on 
poetry,  when,  among  other  things,  he  said  that  Goethe's 
<  Faust '  would  live  as  long  as  the  German  language  was 
understood ;  indeed  he  afterward,  while  traveling  in  the 
East,  remarked  that,  next  to  < Hamlet,'  ' Faust'  was  the 
greatest  composition  that  had  ever  been  written.  And 
what  do  you  think  of  Schiller's  genius  ?  All  his  reply  was, 
'  Schiller  did  not  gird  his  loins.'  '  Oliver  Twist '  was  the 
best  of  Dickens's  works.  '  Adam  Bede '  will  live.  '  Silas 
Marner '  is  a  perfect  jewel  of  a  novel.  One  of  the  com- 
pany asked  what  there  was  in  Racine  that  his  countrymen 
assigned  to  him  so  high  a  rank  ?  '  I  have  been  told,'  he 
answered,  *  that  the  refinement  of  his  style  is  so  subtle  that 
no  one  not  bred  up  in  the  language  can  appreciate  it.'  c  No 
one,  he  thought,  who  was  thoroughly  at  home  in  his  own 
language  could  be  intimately  acquainted  with  any  other. 
The  gesticulation  which  the  French  so  constantly  make 
use  of  is  due  to  the  poverty  of  their  language,  and  not  to 
their  wit.'  I  think  he  added  '  that  it  was  due  to  the  same 
cause  that  they  had  never  had  but  one  real  poet — Beranger.' 
English  he  placed  above  all  other  languages ;  and  it  was 
plainly  not  mere  sentiment  which  led  him  to  this  conclu- 
sion, but  study  and  thought.  Once,  at  our  dinner-table, 
while  describing  its  force,  he  said,  '  We  have  little  words 
in  our  language  which  tell  like  the  stroke  of  a  ham- 
mer.' 


LETTER  TO  MISS   SHIRREFF. 


"  Mr.  Capel  and  he  staid  to  the  last,  though  he  com- 
plained of  fatigue.  We  told  him  to  fancy  himself  in  the 
lodging-house  at  St.  Leonards,  and  lie  down  o«n  the  sofa. 
He  then  talked  of  Newton  —  how  mental  and  physical 
strength  were  combined  in  his  constitution,  and  com- 
plained of  his  own  feebleness,  saying,  c  I  am  never  a  week 
without  feeling  that  I  have  a  body.  If  I  were  a  strong 
man,  I  would  do  something.7  Only  a  few  weeks  later  the 
second  volume  was  in  our  hands,  and  we  heard  that  its  au- 
thor was  very  ill,  and  in  danger  of  brain  fever." 

On  April  23d  he  writes  from  Oxford  Terrace  :  "  My 
seclusion  has  been  all  owing  to  work,  which  has  severely 
tasked  my  strength  and  engrossed  all  my  time.  But  now 
it  is  well-nigh  over,  and  unless  the  printers  play  me  false 
my  volume  will  be  out  by  the  middle  of  next  week.  When 
it  comes  out  I  hope  that  the  Scotch  clergy  will  love  me. 
I  have  toiled  hard  to  deserve  their  affection." 


"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  30th  April,  1861. 

"My  DEAR  Miss  SHIKREFF:  ...  I  saw  Dr.  Williams 
the  other  day,  and  his  prescription  is,  I  think,  doing  me 
good.  But  I  seem  to  see  all  events  with  a  distempered 

and  carping  eye.     I  asked  him  about  Gr ,  of  whose 

case  lie  spoke,  on  the  whole,  favorably,  looking  on  time  as 
the  great  curer.  Tell  this  to  your  sister,  with  my  kind 
love,  and  genuine  thanks  for  her  letter.  Glad  as  I  always 
am  to  see  her  husband,  the  distance  is  too  far,  and  he  not 
strong  enough  to  make  me  wish  him  to  call,  unless  he 
should  have  occasion  to  be  in  the  neighborhood.  I  do  not 
need  a  visit  from  him  to  be  assured  of  his  friendship." 


318  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

"  59  OXFOKD  TERRACE,  1st  May,  1861. 

"ThcA-R  MRS.  MITCHELL:  .  .  .  You  ask  me  to  give 
you  a  list  of  the  few  really  important  writers  the  world  has 
produced,  and  whose  works,  from  the  amount  of  new  truth 
they  contain,  mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  human 
mind.  Such  a  list  will  necessarily  be  extremely  short ; 
and  I  shall  make  it  shorter  by  striking  out  of  it  the  great 
physical  and  mathematical  works — because  the  truths  in 
them  are  so  cumulative  that  the  latest  works  are  usually 
the  best.  With  this  reservation,  I  will  now  mention  what 
I  think  the  most  important  and  original  writers :  Homer, 
Plato,  Aristotle  (the  Romans  produced  nothing  original  ex- 
cept their  jurisprudence — their  philosophy  they  stole  from 
the  Greeks,  and  spoiled  it  in  the  stealing),  Dante,  Shake- 
speare, Bacon,  Descartes,  Hobbes,  Grotius,  Locke,  Berkeley, 
Kant,  Brown  on  c  Causes  and  Effects,'  Hegel,  Comte's c  Phi- 
losophic Positive,'  Mill's  <  Logic,'  Smith's  <  "Wealth  of  Na- 
tions,' Malthus  '  On  Population,'  Ricardo's  f  Political  Econ- 
omy.' And  for  the  study  of  human  nature,  the  three 
greatest  modern  works  of  fiction  are  '  Don  Quixote,'  '  The 
Pilgrim's  Progress,'  and  Goethe's  '  Faust.' 

"  Possibly  I  have  omitted  something ;  but  there,  I  be- 
lieve, are  the  whole  of  the  masterpieces.  Yirgil  and  Mil- 
ton I  omit ;  because,  greatly  as  I  admire  them  (especially 
Milton),  I  can  not  place  them  in  the  same  rank  as  Homer, 
Dante,  and  Shakespeare.  If  this  list  needs  further  illus- 
trations, pray  do  not  hesitate  to  ask  for  it." 3 

8  Plato :  "  This  consummate  thinker."—?;  15,  vol.  i.,  "  History  of  Civil- 
ization." 

Aristotle:  "Probably  the  greatest  of  all  ancient  thinkers."— P.  543, 
note  244,  vol.  i.  "  Between  Aristotle  and  Bichat  I  can  find  no  middle  man." 
— P.  812,  note  137,  vol.  i.  Hunter,  as  a  physiologist,  "was  equaled,  or  per- 


LETTER  TO  MES.   MITCHELL.  319 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  2d  May,  1861. 

"  DEAK  MES.  MITCHELL  :  .  .  .  Pray  remember  that  I 
did  not  send  you  the  list  with  a  view  to  your  studies.  Each 
person  needs  a  separate  plan.  My  intention  was  to  give 
you  a  universal,  and,  as  it  were,  bird's-eye  view  of  the 

haps  excelled,  by  Aristotle ;  but,  as  a  pathologist,  he  stands  alone." — P. 
566,  vol.  ii.,  "  History  of  Civilization."  "  Little  inferior  to  Plato  in  depth, 
and  much  his  superior  in  comprehensiveness." — "  Essay  on  Mill." 

Dante :  "  It  is  impossible  to  discuss  so  large  a  question  in  a  note ;  but, 
to  my  apprehension,  no  poet,  except  Dante  and  Shakespeare,  ever  had  an 
imagination  more  soaring  and  more  audacious  than  that  possessed  ^by  Sir 
Isaac  Newton."— P.  113,  note  194,  vol.  i.,  "History  of  Civilization." 

Shakespeare :  "  The  greatest  of  the  sons  of  men." — P.  42,  vol.  ii.    "  The 

two  mightiest  intellects  our  country  has  produced  are  Shakespeare  and 

Newton."— P.  504,  vol.  ii.,  "  History  of  Civilization."     "  A  perfect  intellect, 

.  .  .  that  instance,  I  need  hardly  say,  is  Shakespeare."     "  He  thought  as 

deeply  as  Plato  or  Kant.     He  observed  as  closely  as  Dickens  or  Thackeray." 

Bacon :  Burke  was,  "  Bacon  alone  excepted,  the  greatest  thinker  who 
has  ever  devoted  himself  to  English  politics." — P.  413,  vol.  i.  "  Bacon  and 
Descartes,  the  two  greatest  writers  on 'the  philosophy  of  method  in  the 
seventeenth  century." — P.  542,  note  242,  vol.  i.,  "  History  of  Civilization." 
"To  genius  of  the  highest  order  he  added  eloquence,  wit,  and  industry." 
"  While  the  speculations  of  Bacon  were  full  of  wisdom,  his  acts  were  full 
of  folly."—"  Essay  on  Mill." 

Descartes :  "  Of  whom  the  least  that  can  be  said  is,  that  he  effected  a 
revolution  more  decisive  than  has  ever  been  brought  about  by  any  other 
single  mind."— P.  529,  vol.  i. 

Hobbes :  "  The  subtlest  dialectician  of  his  time ;  a  writer,  too,  of  singular 
clearness,  and  among  British  metaphysicians  inferior  only  to  Berkeley. 
This  profound  thinker,"  etc. — P.  356,  vol.  i.,  "  History  of  Civilization." 

Berkeley :  "  The  most  subtle  metaphysician  who  has  ever  written  in 
English." — P.  659,  vol.  i.  "  One  of  the  deepest  and  most  unanswerable  of 
all  speculators." — Vol.  ii.,  p.  478,  note  113,  "History  of  Civilization." 

Kant :  "  That  extraordinary  thinker,  who  in  some  directions  has,  perhaps, 
penetrated  deeper  than  any  philosopher  either  before  or  since.  .  .  .  The 
depth  of  his  mind  considerably  exceeded  its  comprehensiveness. — "  Essay 
on  Mill,"  note. 


Comte :  "  A  living  writer,  who  has  done  more  than  any  other  to  raise 
the  standard  of  history." — P.  5,  vol.  i.,  note  1.  "  This  eminent  philosopher." 
— P.  173,  vol.  1.  "  The  greatest  [writer  on  the  philosophy  of  method]  in 
our  own  time." — P.  542,  note  242,  vol.  1. 


320  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

great  epochs  of  thought,  for  speculative  curiosity  rather 
than  for  practical  use." 

On  May  15th,  he  received  his  second  volume,  and  the 
next  day  went  to  Margate,  whence  he  writes : 

"17th  May,  1861. 

"  DEAR  MES.  GKOTE  :  I  am  so  unwilling  that  you 
should  think  that  during  the  few  weeks  for  which  you 
visit  town  I  would  intentionally  abstain  from  coming  to 
see  you  that  I  write  to  tell  you  the  cause.  The  moment 
I  had  got  my  second  volume  through  the  press,  the  ex- 
citement which  had  kept  me  up  being  withdrawn,  I  sud- 
denly collapsed.  The  nervous  prostration  became  so 
threatening  that  I  was  ordered  to  try  what  this  very 
bracing  air  would  do  for  me.  Already  I  am  better,  but 

Mill:  See  "the  Essay." 

Adain  Smith :  "  Published  his  *  Wealth  of  Nations,'  which,  looking  at  its 
ultimate  results,  is  probably  the  most  important  book  that  has  ever  been 
written." — P.  194,  vol.  i.  "  Indeed,  Hume,  notwithstanding  his  vast  powers, 
was  inferior  to  Smith  in  comprehensiveness,  as  well  as  in  industry." — P. 
195,  note  59,  vol.  i.  "  Well  may  be  it  be  said  of  Adam  Smith,  and  said, 
too,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  this  solitary  Scotchman  has,  by  the 
publication  of  one  single  work,  contributed  more  toward  the  happiness  of 
man  than  has  been  effected  by  the  united  abilities  of  all  the  statesmen  and 
legislators  of  whom  history  has  preserved  an  authentic  account." — Vol.  i., 
pp.  196,  197.  "  By  far  the  greatest  of  all  Scotch  thinkers."— P.  432,  vol.  ii. 
"  Displaying  that  dialectical  skill  which  is  natural  to  his  countrymen,  and 
of  which  he  himself  was  one  of  the  most  consummate  masters  the  world 
has  ever  seen."— P.  441,  vol.  ii.,  and  pp.  443,  540,  vol.  ii.,  "History  of  Civil- 
ization." 

Malthus:  "  The  great  work  of  Malthus."— "  Essay  on  Mill." 

Ricardo :  "  Since  Ricardo,  no  original  thinker  has  taken  an  active  part 
in  political  affairs."—"  Essay  on  Mill."  "  And  Mill's  book  is,  on  the  whole, 
the  best  since  Adam  Smith,  though  for  pure  political  economy  hardly  equal 
to  Ricardo's.  But  Mill  has  larger  social  views  than  Ricardo,  and  is  less 
difficult."— Letter  to  Miss  Shirreff,  July  5,  1858. 


FURTHER  ILLNESS.  321 

still  miserably  nervous,  and  tormented  by  the  thought  of 
how  little  I  can  do,  and  how  vast  an  interval  there  is  be- 
tween my  schemes  and  my  powers.  This  is  th£  first  day 
I  have  been  well  enough  to  write,  and  the  trembling  of 
my  hand  will,  I  fear,  make  this  difficult  to  decipher. 

"  In  about  a  week,  or  ten  days,  I  shall  probably  be 
again  in  town  for  a  very  short  time,  as  I  am  ordered  to 
move  about  from  place  to  place  as  much  as  possible.  Di- 
rectly the  weather  is  settled  I  shall  go  abroad." 

Mr.  Capel  joined  him  at  Eamsgate,  and  related  after- 
ward several  little  things  which  showed  in  what  a  ner- 
vous state  poor  Buckle  then  was,  and  how  little  things, 
which  formerly  would  only  have  provoked  a  smile,  now 
caused  him  real  annoyance.  "  Now  they  are  coming  with 
their  vulgarities,"  he  irritably  exclaimed  after  a  miserably 
cooked  dinner,  when  finger-glasses  and  doylies  were  put 
on  the  table.  Once,  too,  when  Mr.  Capel  just  read  a  cou- 
ple of  pages  out  of  a  newly  published  work  of  Mr.  Mill's, 
and  rather  inconsiderately  asked  some  questions  on  it,  his 
friend  nearly  fainted  in  the  attempt  to  answer  him. 

At  Brighton,  where  Buckle  went  after  a  week's  stay 
at  Ramsgate,  his  sleep  was  so  restless  and  agitated  that 
one  night  he  fell  out  of  bed  ;  and  his  voice  was  heard  so 
loud  that  the  servants  knocked  at  the  door,  thinking  that 
he  was  calling.  Brighton,  however,  set  him  up  in  some 
degree,  for  he  again  went  into  society  when  he  returned 
to  London,  after  a  week's  stay  there.  He  called  on  Mrs. 
Iluth,  looking  as  usual  and  talking  as  usual ;  but  it  was 
plain  that  he  was  incapable  of  work,  or  he  would  not  have 
gone  about  calling  on  his  friends  in  the  middle  of  the  day. 
21 


322  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

Mrs.  Huth  writes :  "  I  told  him  how  anxious  we  had  all 
been  about  him,  and  that  the  first  we  had  heard  of  his 
illness  was  from  Mrs.  Bowyear,  who  told  me  that  he  had 
called  on  her,  and  was  obliged  to  sit  down  for  twenty 
minutes  before  he  was  rested  enough  to  speak.  He 
laughed,  and  said :  '  What  ?  I  did  not  talk  for  twenty 
minutes  ?  You  must  have  thought  that  a  very  bad  symp- 
tom ! '  When  the  carriage  came,  I  asked  him  whether 
we  could  put  him  down  anywhere?  He  named  some 
out-of-the-way  street,  saying  that  he  had  business  there. 
LoDg  after,  I  accidentally  learned  that  the  business  was 
one  of  those  errands  of  charity  to  which  he  devoted  so 
much  of  his  time,  and  that  he  had  not  the  heart  to  inter- 
rupt them  even  after  his  health  had  broken  down." 

From  Brighton  he  wrote  as  follows : 

"  BRIGHTON,  27th  May,  1861. 

"  DEAE  MES.  MITCHELL  :  I  have  been  very  ill,  and 
even  now,  though  much  better,  my  hand  shakes  so  much 
as  to  make  it  difficult  to  me  to  write. 

"  Complete  and  sudden  nervous  exhaustion  forced  me 
to  leave  town  without  seeing  any  of  my  friends.  But  I 
am  told  that  with  returning  strength  I  may  again  go  into 
society ;  and,  as  I  have  determined  to  go  to  London  on 
Thursday,  and  as  your  invitation  is  for  only  one  day  ear- 
lier, I  can  not  deny  myself  the  pleasure  you  hold  out  to 
me.  Therefore,  I  will  dine  with  you  at  eight  on  Wednes- 
day, 29th." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  6th  June,  1861. 

"  DEAE  MES.  GEOTE  :  Your  letter  is  very  kind,  and  I 
should  be  truly  sorry  not  to  see  you  before  I  again  leave 


LETTER  TO  MR.  CAPEL.  323 

town,  which  I  shall  do  in  about  ten  days.  I  have  returned 
home  for  a  short  time,  because  I  felt  so  depressed  that  I 
thought  a  little  society  would  do  me  good.  But  my  head 
is  so  weak  that  I  do  not  venture  to  see  any  one  whose  con- 
versation is  likely  to  interest  me  on  a  day  in  which  I  am 
dining  out.  At  present  I  am  engaged  till  Monday  next 
inclusive;  but  on  and  after  Tuesday  I  have  nothing  on 
my  hands,  as  very  few  people  know  that  I  am  in  town.  I 
would,  therefore,  call  upon  you  on  Tuesday  afternoon  (the 
llth),  or  I  would  lunch  with  you ;  or,  as  you  kindly  speak 
of  a  quiet  dinner,  I  would  dine  with  you  on  that  day,  or 
on  some  other  when  you  may  chance  to  be  disengaged.  If 
you  are  at  home  when  this  note  arrives,  please  to  let  me 
have  one  line  by  the  bearer ;  for  at  present  I  hold  myself 
entirely  at  your  disposal  after  Monday.  But  do  not  marvel 
if  you  find  me  very  dull ;  I  feel  like  a  worn-out  old  man. 

"  Thank  you  for  thinking  about  me  for  your  evening 
party ;  but  I  have  a  dinner  engagement  for  Friday,  and  I 
must  not  risk  a  double  excitement." 

"  59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  16th  June,  1861. 

"  MY  DEAR  CAPEL  :  I  hope  to  be  with  you  on  "Wednes- 
day next.  I  can  not  fix  the  time,  but  I  do  not  think  I  can 
get  to  you  before  lunch.  Don't  ask  any  one  to  meet  me 
while  I  am  with  you. 

"  If  my  proposal  suits  you,  let  me  have  a  line  to  that 
effect. 

c*  I  drink  hardly  anything  but  claret — pure  and  sound, 
but  not  expensive — Julien,  or  some  vm  ordinaire.  It  is 
advisable  to  know  something  of  the  place  one  gets  it  from, 
otherwise  it  may  be  unwholesome.  I  know  that  you  will 


324:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

excuse  my  mentioning  this;  or,  rather,  that  you  would 
wish  me  to  mention  it.  Mr.  Mayo  also  wishes  me  to  drink 
occasionally  German  seltzer  water. 

"  I  shall  hope  to  stay  about  a  week  with  you.  Try  and 
engage  a  really  new-laid  egg  for  me  for  breakfast." 

Of  course  the  boys  were  delighted  to  renew  their  ac- 
quaintance with  him  when  he  again  came  down  to  Carshal- 
ton ;  but  he  seemed  to  them  to  be  very  weak.  His  gait 
was  stooping,  and  his  walk  rather  shambling,  though  he 
was  able  to  walk  long  distances.  As  he  sat  quiet,  his  over- 
worked nerves  showed  their  state  of  weakness  by  his  con- 
stant little  groans,  as  if  he  were  going  to  speak  and  stopped 
himself  suddenly. 

While  he  was  staying  there,  Mrs.  Huth  came  down  to 
Carshalton  with  a  daughter  for  the  day,  to  visit  her  sons. 
"  I  sat  half  the  day,"  she  writes,  "  with  him  in  the  little 
front  garden.  He  seemed  to  be  amused  with  the  children, 
who  were  constantly  coming  up  to  him,  talking  to  him,  or 
shouting  to  him  from  a  distance ;  and  I  noticed  the  acute- 
ness  of  his  ear.  The  voices  of  my  children  at  that  time  were 
so  alike  that  I  could  not  distinguish  them  myself;  but  he, 
though  too  short-sighted  to  see  their  faces  unless  they  were 
near  him,  seemed  perfectly  able  to  recognize  them  by  their 
voices.  He  talked  to  me  of  my  daughter's  education. 
( Four  hours  and  a  half  at  lessons  is  too  much  for  her,'  he 
said ;  '  you  could  not  do  it  yourself,  and  you  are  stronger 
than  she  is.5  Surely  I  could  read  four  hours  and  a  half  in 
the  day  if  I  had  no  other  duties.  '  No,  you  could  not,' 
he  replied  ;  '  and  that  child  ought  not  to  work  more  than 
two  in  the  morning  and  one  in  the  afternoon,  at  present. 


CONVERSATION  WITH  MRS.   HUTH.  325 

That  may  make  all  the  difference  in  her  constitution,  wheth- 
er she  be  healthy  or  sickly  during  the  rest  of  her  life.  And 
you  must  find  out  what  she  takes  an  interest  in,  -and  then 
occupy  her  with  it.  She  might  take  up  drawing,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  three  hours'  work,  since  you  say  she  is  fond 
of  it ;  and  the  dancing  would  also  be  an  extra,  since  it  in- 
volves no  mental  work.  The  tendency  of  education  nowa- 
days is  to  overwork  children,  and  hence  the  great  propor- 
tion of  weak-brained  adults.  Does  she  learn  Latin  ?  My  . 
dear  Mrs.  Huth !  what  induced  you  to  make  her  study  one 
of  the  most  difficult  of  languages  ?  Miss  ShirrefF,  as  you 
say,  has  pointed  out  its  value,  and  what  she  says  is  quite 
true,  and  advisable  in  the  education  of  strong  girls.  But 
she  will  teach  it  herself,  if  she  wishes  to  know  it,  by  the 
time  she  is  twenty ;  and,  for  the  present,  the  best  thing 
you  can  do  is  to  make  her  forget  what  she  has  learned  as 
fast  as  possible.  Let  her  read  books  on  travel ;  they  will 
teach  her  pleasantly,  and  without  fatigue,  much  that  is 
valuable.  If  she  does  not  care  to  read  these,  let  her  read 
story-books.  It  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  foster  a 
habit  of  reading ;  the  rest  will  come  of  itself.  You  ought 
not  to  let  her  overdo  herself  physically  either ;  and  by  no 
means  let  your  daughters  walk  as  you  walked  at  their  age. 
Much  of  your  present  weakness  and  neuralgia  is  probably 
due  to  that.  You  say  that  at  that  time  you  felt  all  the 
better  and  stronger  for  it  ?  I  dare  say  you  did.  But  all 
the  while  you  were  living  on  your  capital ;  your  life  was 
consumed  too  fast.  Statistics  show  that  butchers  are  very 
seldom  on  the  sick-lists  of  their  societies,  while  bakers  are 
constantly  ill.  But,  nevertheless,  bakers  are  longer-lived 
than  butchers.  You  were  quite  right  not  to  let  your 


326  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

daughter  practice  those  Swedish  exercises.  Nothing  of 
the  kind  ought  to  be  done  without  the  advice  of  a  really 
good  medical  man.  You  may  have  the  action  of  a  feeble 
heart,  for  instance,  quickly  strengthened  by  certain  re- 
peated exercises ;  but  the  result  may  be  heart  disease,  ow- 
ing to  that  organ  having  been  overworked. 

" '  Tutors,'  he  said,  ( generally  teach  too  much  from 
books,  and  too  little  by  word  of  mouth.  I  teach  these 
boys  more,  sometimes,  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour  than  they 
would  learn  otherwise  in  a  week.'  But  are  our  present 
race  of  tutors  capable  of  teaching  in  that  way  ?  He  shook 
his  head.  Presently  the  postman  came,  and  brought  him 
a  letter.  He  read  it,  put  it  in  his  pocket,  and,  looking 
quietly  up  at  us,  said,  '  I  have  heard  of  the  death  of  three 
relatives  to-day,  and  I  do  not  care  for  any  one  of  them. 
It  is  conventional,'  he  went  on,  '  to  look  sad  when  speak- 
ing of  the  death  of  a  relative,  though  during  his  lifetime 
one  may  never  have  shown  him  the  slightest  attention.  I 
think  it  better  to  be  truthful.  The  letter  I  have  just  re- 
ceived told  me  of  the  death  of  a  relative  abroad,  whom  I 
had  already  taken  a  dislike  to  when  we  were  children ;  for 
she  had  a  bird  that  she  made  a  great  pet  of,  yet  when  it 
died  she  did  not  seem  to  care  one  bit.  Later  in  life,  she 
used  to  beat  her  children  on  the  slightest  of  grounds.' 
The  threat  <  I'll  lick  you,  if  you  don't,'  from  one  of  the 
bigger  boys  to  a  smaller,  which  we  overheard,  caused  Mr. 
Buckle  to  tell  me  that  he  had  heard  it  once  before,  and 
seen  it  followed  up  practically.  cWhy  did  I  allow  it? 
Oh,  a  strong  boy  is  not  hurt  by  a  little  rough  treatment ; 
and,  supposing  I  had  stopped  that  one  act,  what  good 
should  I  have  done  ? " 


VISIT  TO  CAKSHALTON.  327 


"  Once  more  we  paid  Mr.  Buckle  a  short  visit  at  Car- 
shalton.  "We  had  been  at  Leatherhead  to  look  at  a  place 
which  we  meant  to  take  for  the  summer,  and  stopped  at 
Mr.  Capel's  on  our  way  back.  Everybody  was  out.  Mr. 
Capel  had  gone  to  town,  the  servant  informed  us,  but  she 
f  knew  where  Mr.  Buckle  and  the  young  gentlemen  were.' 
We  waited ;  and  after  a  short  time  saw  them  coming 
across  the  field,  laughing,  talking,  and  running,  as  if  they 
were  all  boys  together.  They  had  been  at  a  strawberry 
gathering,  and  one  of  the  boys,  enlarging  on  the  generos- 
ity of  their  host,  told  us  that  they  *  had  been  allowed  to 
eat  as  many  as  they  liked.'  <  You  ought  to  say,  you  ate 
as  many  as  you  could,'  interrupted  Mr.  Buckle ;  and  then 

turning  to  me,  ' filled  himself  with  them  till  I  saw 

a  strawberry  come  out  of  each  eye.'  Another  boy,  looking 
all  dimples,  gave  me  his  account  of  the  treat.  Mr.  Buckle 
watched  his  face,  and  then  asked  me  in  German  whether 
the  mother  of  the  boy  had  a  pretty  smile — men  rarely  had 
it.  I  warned  him  not  to  think  that  the  little  fellow  did 
not  know  German;  but  he  said  he  had  forgotten  all  he 
knew  since  he  had  been  at  school.  '  That's  good  educa- 
tion,' Mr.  Buckle  said  ironically,  <  to  make  a  child  learn 
something,  and  allow  it  to  be  forgotten.'  I  reminded  him 
about  my  daughter's  Latin,  but  he  of  course  saw  that  I 
understood  the  difference  between  the  two  cases. 

"  The  weather  was  beautiful,  and  I  made  a  remark  on 
the  air,  which  was  fresh,  and  fragrant  with  the  scent  of 
the  neighboring  lavender  fields.  He,  too,  thought  the  air 
very  bracing,  but  said  that,  all  the  same,  he  could  not  stay 
at  Carshalton  much  longer.  I  guessed  the  cause,  and  re- 
marked that  Mr.  Capel  was  not  a  suitable  companion  in 


328  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

his  nervous  state.  'No,  poor  Capel  worries  me;  but  I 
shall  miss  the  boys.  I  wish  some  one  would  make  me  the 
guardian  of  two  or  three  boys.'  Then  he  discussed  the 
possibility  of  adopting  some ;  and  said  that  he  could  not 
adopt  children  of  the  lower  classes,  because  they  were  so 
badly  brought  up ;  but  that  he  should  be  quite  satisfied 
with  ordinary  gentlemen's  sons  of  thirteen  or  fourteen 

years  of  age.     I  told  him  that  his  friend  Mrs. had 

adopted  the  eldest  child  of  some  servants  who  had  married 
from  her  house.  I  thought  she  would  find  it  awkward  in 
time,  when  the  little  girl  had  grown  up  as  a  lady,  while  her 
father  and  mother,  brothers  and  sisters,  had  to  seek  their 
company  in  the  servants'  hall.  lie  thought  so  too,  and, 
indeed,  held  that  an  adopted  child  ought  to  be  entirely  cut 
off  from  all  knowledge  of  its  real  parents  and  relations. 
"We  then  talked  of  his  future  plans ;  he  thought  Sweden, 
a  country  which  he  had  never  yet  seen,  would  prove  bene- 
ficial as  an  entire  change,  and  take  him  away  from  him- 
self;  but  doubted  that  the  rudeness  of  the  country  and 
hardship  of  traveling  might  not  more  than  counterbalance 
any  advantage  of  this  sort  to  a  man  in  his  weak  and  deli- 
cate state  of  health.  As  to  France,  he  said  the  only  part 
of  it  which  is  not  too  hot  for  a  summer  residence  is  the 
extreme  north,  and  there  one  would  be  subjected  to  the 
same  want  of  comfort  as  in  Sweden.  <  Besides,'  he  added, 
< 1  can  not  bear  to  see,  what  makes  me  miserable  even  to 
think  about,  a  noble  people  under  the  heel  of  that  great 
brigand 4— a  people  with  such  a  literature !  ISTo,  my  indig- 
nation increases  year  by  year  as  this  reign  goes  on.'  He 
considered  France,  after  England,  the  most  civilized  of  all 

*  Louis  Napoleon. 


BUCKLE'S  OPINION  OF  FEENCH  MANNERS.      329 

countries.  c  But,'  I  urged,  '  in  Germany  there  is  more 
knowledge.  A  greater  proportion  of  the  German  popula- 
tion are  able  to  read  and  write  even  than  the  English.' 
'  Reading  and  writing  is  not  knowledge  in  itself,'  he  re- 
plied; 'it  is  only  a  means  to  knowledge.'  'But  you  say 
in  your  first  volume  that  you  consider  the  German  philoso- 
phers the  first  in  the  civilized  world,  and  that  Germany 
has  produced  a  greater  number  of  thinkers  than  any  other 
country.' 6  '  Certainly,'  he  answered,  *  but  if  you  look  at 
the  context  you  will  see  that  I  point  out  that  their  litera- 
ture is  the  growth  of  but  a  century,  and  has  had  hardly 
any  influence  on  the  people.'  '  You  say  that  French  re- 
finement is  only  on  the  surface,  because  you  never  saw  in 
France  a  Frenchman  behave  with  unselfish  politeness? 
An  individual  experience  goes  for  nothing  in  a  matter  of 
that  kind.  Look  in  the  window  of  any  grocer's  shop,  and 
mark  the  arrangement  of  the  French  preserved  fruits. 
The  people  who  fill  those  boxes  belong  to  the  lowest  or- 
ders, and  yet  how  much  refinement  they  show !  Look, 
too,  at  the  dresses  of  their  women,  and  you  can  not  but 
admit  that  Frenchwomen  show  far  more  simplicity  and 
quiet  taste  in  their  attire  than  the  women  of  other  coun- 
tries.' He  gave  me  more  cogent  proofs,  but  I  have  for- 
gotten most  of  his  talk  on  the  subject,  and  only  remember 
the  generalizations,  which  amused  and  surprised  me  from 
their  being  drawn  from  facts  which  most  people  would 
hardly  have  noticed. 

"  As  he  sat  there  quietly  talking  on  all  sorts  of  sub- 
jects, no  one  would  have  thought  that  anything  ailed  him. 
Whenever  he  changed  his  position,  however,  I  could  see 

6  "History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  L,  pp.  217,  218. 


330  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

little  twitches  of  pain  in  his  face.  I  asked  him  whether 
he  could  keep  himself  from  thinking.  l  Not  altogether,' 
he  answered.  c  Could  I  have  known  that  I  should  have 
to  pass  so  long  a  time  without  my  books,  I  should  never 
have  believed  I  could  have  borne  it  so  well.'  He  remarked 
once  to  me  that  pain  or  grief  is  not  so  difficult  to  bear  as 
it  appears  from  a  distance ;  and  it  certainly  seemed  true  in 
his  case,  shut  out  as  he  was  from  all  mental  activity,  and 
with  the  wound  still  smarting  of  his  mother's  death.  His 
calm  and  cheerfulness  were  but  rarely  interrupted.  Once 
Mr.  Capel  surprised  him  in  a  flood  of  tears.  '  You  don't 
know  how  I  miss  my  mother,'  he  said.  Yet  he  was  al- 
ways ready  to  joke.  Talking  of  his  health,  he  remarked, 
f  Upon  the  whole,  when  I  look  back  I  find  I  have  made 
no  progress ' ;  and  then  added,  as  if  it  were  equally  sad, 
'  and  now  I  am  so  hungry.' ': 

From  Carshalton  he  went  on  a  tour  in  "Wales,  promis- 
ing to  write  alternately  to  Mr.  Capel  and  Mrs.  Bowyear, 
who  were  to  let  his  other  friends  know  how  he  was. 

"TENBY,  13th  July,  1861. 

"  MY  DEAR  CAPEL  :  It  is  a  week  to-day  since  I  left 
town ;  I  hope  that  I  am  better,  but  I  can  not  say  much 
in  my  own  favor.  Please  to  write  to  me  f  Post-Office, 
Aberystwith,  Cardiganshire ' ;  and,  as  I  probably  shall  not 
stay  there  more  than  two  days,  do  not  delay  writing.  An 
article  on  my  '  History '  is  to  be  out  to-day  in  the  '  Edin- 
burgh He  view,'  but  there  is  not  much  chance  of  my  seeing 
it  here.  If  you  can  get  hold  of  it,  tell  me  if  it  contains 
any  points  of  importance. 

"  I  shall  have  my  letters  forwarded  every  ten  days  or 


LETTERS.  331 

fortnight ;  so  that  a  line  to  Oxford  Terrace  will  at  any 
time  reach  me,  sooner  or  later. 

"My  love  to  the  boys.  Don't  give  them  too  many 
lessons." 

"HULL,  31st  July,  186  L 

"  DEAR  MRS.  MITCHELL  :  After  wandering  for  two  or 
three  weeks  in  Wales,  I  have  crossed  the  country  to  this 
place,  desiring  to  see  an  entirely  opposite  form  of  life. 
On  arriving  here  a  few  hours  ago  I  found  your  letter.  I 
am  in  every  respect  better,  and  my  old  social  cravings  are 
returning.  Again  I  begin  to  feel  human.  At  all  events, 
human  or  not,  I  am  quite  unable  to  resist  the  temptation 
you  hold  out  to  me.  I  shall  hope  to  be  with  you  some- 
where about  the  middle  of  August ;  but  you  will  perhaps 
let  me  leave  the  time  open,  as  the  rate  at  which  I  shall 
travel  northward  will  depend  on  the  weather  and  my 
health,  and,  I  fear  I  must  add,  on  the  caprice  natural  to  a 
solitary  and  unthwarted  man.  I  will  write  to  you  some 
days  beforehand,  of  course  with  the  distinct  understanding 
that,  being  myself  so  uncertain,  I  shall  take  the  chance  of 
your  house  being  filled.  On  no  account  would  I  interfere 
with  the  arrangements  in  regard  to  friends  whom  you  may 
invite ;  and  if  there  is  not  room  for  me,  I  would  travel  on, 
and  come  to  you  later.  Pray  let  this  be  clearly  under- 
stood, as  I  have  no  right  to  leave  my  arrival  so  uncertain." 

"FrLEY,  6th  August,  1861. 

"  MY  DEAR  CAPEL  :  I  am  now  really  better.  I  am 
stronger  and  much  less  depressed.  Your  letter,  dated  27th 
July,  I  received  two  days  ago;  the  uncertainty  of  my 
movements  prevented  me  from  getting  it  before.  I  do 


332  BUCKLE'S' 'LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

not  mind  about  the  for  in  in  which  the  Spanish  translation8 
appears,  but  please  to  let  both  the  translator  and  Robson 
understand  that  there  is  to  be  not  the  slightest  alteration 
in  the  text,  and  that  the  title  is  simply  to  be  c  Introduction 
to  the  History  of  Spanish  Civilization,'  or  '  of  Civilization 
in  Spain.'  Mr.  Huth  will  be  good  enough  (I  suppose)  to 
revise  the  proofs. 

"  I  shall  be  glad  if,  when  you  go  to  town  next  Satur- 
day, you  would  call  at  Parker's,  and  let  me  know  how 
things  are  getting  on.  ... 

"  I  have  not  yet  seen  the  '  Edinburgh ' — indeed,  I 
never  open  a  book  except  <  Shakespeare.'  But  at  Whitby  I 
shall  perhaps  have  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the  reviews. 
Tell  me  in  what  article  the  notice  is  in  the  '  Quarterly.' 7 

"  If  Robson  should  observe  any  alteration,  he  should 
let  you  know  before  printing  it.  I  do  not  like  to  be  re- 
sponsible for  anything  which  I  have  not  written." 

"WHITBY,  13th  August,  1861. 

"  MY  DEAR  MKS.  WOODHEAD  i  Your  letter  has  just 
reached  me  here,  where  I  have  stopped  on  my  way  to 
Scotland.  I  have  been  traveling  through  "Wales,  and  the 
fine  mountain  air  did  me  much  good.  Since  I  saw  you 
I  have  suffered  a  good  deal  from  nervous  exhaustion. 
Now  I  am  considerably  better ;  but  a  very  little  exertion 
fatigues  me,  and  writing  makes  my  hand  tremble.  Still  I 
would  not  delay  sending  you  a  line ;  and  I  know,  too,  that 
you  will  be  pleased  to  hear  of  the  success  of  my  second 

6  Translation  of  chapter  i.  of  vol.  ii. 

7  "  On  Scottish  Character."     "  Quarterly  Review  "  for  July,  1861. 


turn- 

LETTER  TO  MRsN^fojj,^  333 

volume,  of  which  nearly  twenty-three  hundred  copies  are 
already  sold,  besides  the  sale  of  an  American  reprint  and 
a  German  translation.  The  chapter  on  Spain  is  now  being 
translated  into  Spanish.  I  write  with  difficulty,  but  I 
hope  you  will  be  able  to  decipher  this.  Give  my  love  to 
your  husband.  I  am  pleased  to  learn  that  his  industry  is 
returning  to  him." 

"CAKOLSEDE,  25th  August,  1861. 

"  MY  DEAK  MKS.  GEEY  :  I  did  not  receive  your  letter 
till  two  days  ago.  During  the  last  few  weeks  I  have  been 
constantly  on  the  move,  and  my  letters  are  only  sent  to 
me  about  every  ten  days.  For  the  moment  I  am  staying 
with  the  Mitchells — very  pleasant  people  whom  I  think 
you  know — at  all  events,  Miss  ShirrefE  knows  them. 

"  I  am  really  better,  but  think  it  prudent  to  abstain 
from  all  work.  I  wish  you  could  have  given  me  a  better 
account  of  yourself  and  of  Mr.  Grey.  He,  no  doubt,  feels 
the  absence  of  summer.  Here,  at  least,  it  is  bitterly  cold, 
and  since  I  left  London  I  have  found  rain  almost  every- 
where. I  was  delighted  with  Wales — the  southern  and 
western  parts  of  which  I  never  saw  before.  But,  as  your 
theory  is  that  I  know  nothing  about  scenery,  I  will  say  no 
more  on  that  head.  Everywhere  I  go  I  soon  feel  restless, 
and  after  the  first  novelty  has  passed  want  to  go  else- 
where. This,  I  believe,  is  caused  by  the  absence  of  that 
stimulus  to  which  my  brain  has  been  so  many  years  accus- 
tomed. I  seem  to  cry  out  for  work,  and  yet  I  am  afraid 
of  beginning  it  too  soon. 

"  You  do  not  say  if  Miss  Shin-off  is  doing  anything. 
My  kindest  regards  to  her.  When  quiet  with  you  she 


334  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

will  perhaps  be  able  to  do  some  work  ;  and,  if  my  advice 
can  be  of  any  use  to  her,  there  is  no  need  for  me  to  say 
how  gladly  I  would  give  it. 

"  I  have  no  plans  for  the  future ;  but  if  the  weather 
improves,  I  shall  probably  go  farther  north. 

"  I  am  very  glad  that  you  sent  me  the  paper  about  the 
Essays  and  Reviews  Defense  Fund.  I  had  not  heard  of 
it,  and  shall  certainly  subscribe  to  it,  and  bring  it  under 
the  notice  of  others. 

"  This  letter  is  very  dull ;  but  how  can  a  man  help 
being  dull  when  he  neither  reads  nor  thinks  ?  I  feel  a 
constant  void  and  craving.  But  such  is  the  penalty  I  have 
incurred,  and  I  must  pay  it." 

"September,  1861. 

"  DEAR  MRS.  BOWYEAR  :  .  .  .  The  second  edition  of 
my  first  volume  is  exhausted,  and  a  third  edition  has  been 
nearly  three  weeks  in  the  press.  The  second  volume  is 
selling  rapidly — thanks  in  a  great  measure  to  my  enemies. 
If  men  are  not  struck  down  by  hostility,  they  always 
thrive  by  it.  The  German  translation  has  appeared,  and 
a  Spanish  translation  of  the  chapter  on  Spain  is  now 
passing  through  the  press.  A  Russian  translation  was 
advertised  as  being  in  preparation,  but  it  has  been  prohib- 
ited at  St.  Petersburg ;  and  I  have  received  two  different 
proposals  for  a  French  translation — one  from  Paris  and 
one  from  Brussels.  So  much  for  the  egotism  of  an  au- 
thor." 

"  SUTTON,  15th  September,  1861. 

"MY  DEAR  AUNT:  .  .  .  My  health  has  improved 
greatly,  indeed  I  may  say  I  am  almost  well,  having  lost 
all  my  nervous  symptoms.  I  greatly  enjoyed  my  trip  in 


SUCCESSES  OF  THE   "  HISTORY."  335 

Wales  and  Scotland.  My  new  volume  is  selling  famously 
in  England  and  America.  The  German  translation  of  it 
has  appeared,  and  a  Spanish  translation  is  being  prepared. 
The  Russian  translation  has  been  prohibited,  it  not  being 
thought  right  that  so  mischievous  a  book  should  pollute 
the  pure  minds  of  the  Russians.  You  see  that  it  is  your 
misfortune  to  have  a  bad  and  dangerous  man  for  a  nephew. 
The  second  edition  of  my  first  volume  is  all  sold,  and  a 
third  edition  is  being  printed.8  I  think  I  have  now  told 

8  Mr.  D.  Mackenzie  Wallace  twice  found  the  Russian  translation  of 
Buckle's  History  in  peasants'  huts.  "  In  the  course  of  a  few  years,"  he 
says,  "  no  less  than  four  independent  translations — so,  at  least,  I  am  in- 
formed by  a  good  authority — were  published  and  sold.  Every  one  read,  or 
at  least,  professed  to  have  read,  the  wonderful  book ;  and  many  believed 
that  its  author  was  the  great  genius  of  the  present  generation.  During  the 
first  year  of  my  residence  in  Russia  I  rarely  had  a  serious  conversation 
without  hearing  Buckle's  name  mentioned  ;  and  my  friends  almost  always 
assumed  that  he  had  succeeded  in  creating  a  genuine  science  of  history  on 
the  inductive  method.  In  vain  I  pointed  out  that  Buckle  had  merely  thrown 
out  some  hints  in  his  introductory  chapter  [  !  !  ]  as  to  how  such  a  science 
ought  to  be  constructed,  and  that  he  himself  had  made  no  serious  attempt 
to  use  the  method  which  he  commended.  My  objections  had  little  or  no 
effect ;  the  belief  was  too  deep-rooted  to  be  so  easily  eradicated.  In  books, 
periodicals,  newspapers,  and  professional  lectures  the  name  of  Buckle  was 
constantly  cited — often  violently  dragged  in  without  the  slightest  reason — 
and  the  cheap  translations  of  his  work  were  sold  in  enormous  quantities." 
—Pp.  167,  168,  "  Russia,"  vol.  i.,  London,  1877. 

The  following  are  the  particulars  of  its  sale  in  England  : 

Vol.  i. :  By  the  end  of  1857,  675  copies  were  sold.  On  July  the  10th, 
1858,  the  publisher  informs  Buckle  that  500  copies  of  the  new  edition  had 
been  sold,  including  100  to  Mudie. 

By  16th  September,  1858,  714  copies  of  the  new  edition  were  sold. 

By  8th  November,  1858,  950  copies  of  second  edition  were  sold. 

By  15th  December,  1858,  992  copies  of  second  edition  were  sold. 

23d  February,  1859,  1,100  of  the  second  edition  sold. 

22d  July,  1859,  "  a  trifle  more  than  1,200." 

1st  November,  1859,  1,340  were  sold,  of  which  60  went  at  the  October 
sales. 

13th  April,  1860,  nearly  600  left  of  second  edition. 

7th  November,  1860,  "  there  remain  unsold  300  copies,  and  a  little  more," 
of  second  edition. 


336  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

you  all  the  news.     And  so,  earnestly  hoping  that  you  will 
soon  recover  your  strength, 

"  I  am,  etc.,  etc." 

"CABOLSIDE,  27th  August,  1861. 

"  MY  DEAR  MES.  HUTH  :  Owing  to  the  uncertainty  of 
my  movements,  I  did  not  receive  your  letter  till  a  few 
days  ago,  on  my  arrival  here. 

"  I  fully  hope  and  expect  to  be  able  to  pay  you  a  visit 
at  Sutton — perhaps  about  the  middle  of  September.  "When 
I  can  fix  a  day  I  will  write  again,  to  ask  if  my  time  will 
suit  you.  Meanwhile,  I  should  be  glad  to  know  if  you 
have  heard  from  Mr.  Capel,  and  where  he  is,  and  how  he 
is.  "When  he  last  wrote  to  me,  he  was  about  to  go  abroad 
with  your  boys. 

"  I  am  much  better,  but  still,  as  a  precautionary  mea- 
sure, abstain  from  all  work.  I  hope  that  you  are  all  well. 
Give  my  best  regards  to  Mr.  Huth." 

On  the  15th  we  met  Mr.  Buckle  at  the  station,  Mrs. 
Huth  writes,  and  saw  him  get  out  of  a  third-class  carriage 
with  his  little  dog  "  Skye,"  who  had  been  especially  in- 
vited. Skye  had  never  traveled  by  rail  before ;  and  when 
Mr.  Buckle  had  to  change  at  Croydon,  and  saw  him  taken 

17th  April,  1861  (before  vol.  ii.  came  out),  there  remained  150  copies  of 
the  second  edition. 

15th  June,  1861,  there  were  74  copies  remaining. 

Vol.  ii. :  "  My  second  vol.  (edition  3,000  copies)  was  delivered  to  the 
trade  on  18th  May.  The  trade  subscribed  for  900  copies,  Mudie's  100. 
There  were  orders  in  the  house  for  230.  Total  taken,  1,230. 

"On  25th  May,  'nearly  1,600  were  sold.' 

"On  llth  June,  'over  1,700.' 

"  On  15th  June,  1,900  sold." 

For  the  translations  and  editions,  see  the  bibliography  of  this  work. 


STAY  AT  SUTTON.  337 

out  of  the  dog-box  trembling  all  over,  he  preferred  rather 
to  get  into  a  third-class  carriage  with  him  than  have  him 
put  back,  and  consequently  caught  a  cold,  which  he  did 
not  get  rid  of  for  a  week. 

He  told  us  that  he  felt  much  stronger,  and  intended 
to  try  to  work  for  a  couple  of  hours  every  day.  In  the 
evening  he  brought  a  heap  of  newspapers  and  other  peri- 
odicals, and  letters,  into  the  drawing-room,  which  he  had 
found  awaiting  him  at  Oxford  Terrace,  and  had  not  had 
time  to  read  before  coming  on  to  Sutton.  They  all  had 
reference  to  his  second  volume,  the  periodicals  containing 
reviews  which  the  publisher  or  friends  had  sent  him,  and 
the  letters  from  people  in  almost  every  class  of  society,  all 
saying  something  about  his  book. 

One  of  the  most  curious  among  them  was  from  a  pub- 
lic-house keeper  at  Glasgow,  who  said  that  every  word  of 
Mr.  Buckle's  character  of  the  Scotch  was  true,  and  that  he 
himself  would  have  written  it  just  as  Buckle  had  done, 
but  that  he  had  not  learned  to  write  books.  He  finished 
up  with  a  long  poem,  which  Mr.  Buckle  read  out  to  us 
with  mock  solemnity,  full  of  conceits  on  his  name;  he 
would  buckle  on  his  armor,  and  buckle  to,  and  buckle  with, 
nor  care  for  the  buckling  of  bigotry's  face,  but  take  up  his 
buckler,  etc.,  etc.  Another  letter  was  from  a  young  Amer- 
ican lady,  who  was  pained  to  think  that  the  author  of  the 
"  History  of  Civilization  in  England  "  was  so  little  valued 
in  his  own  country.  "Would  it  comfort  him  to  know  that 
a  heart  was  beating  for  him  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlan- 
tic— a  heart  full  of  admiration  and  warm  and  lively  sym- 
pathy? Many  of  these  communications  were  from  me- 
chanics ;  one,  which  was  afterward  found  among  Mr.  Buc- 

22 


338  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

kle's  papers,  was  from  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Rhode 
Island,  who  also  sent  him  a  copy  of  his  work ;  and  another, 
also  found  among  the  posthumous  papers,  was  as  follows : 

"  BOSTON,  U.  S.,  9th  August,  1861. 

"  DEAE  SIB  :  In  your  last  volume  I  observe  you  despair 
of  carrying  out  your  primal  idea.  Did  it  never  occur  to 
you  that  you  might  do  three  times  the  quantity  of  work 
thrice  as  easily  by  having  the  assistance  of  a  skilled  aman- 
uensis ?  It  is  a  source  of  EXTREME  regret  that  I  did  not 
propose  to  poor  Macautey  what  I  now  take  the  liberty  of 
doing  to  you. 

"  I  am  by  birth  an  Englishman,  38  years  of  age,  a  rapid 
penman,  a  stenographer ;  have  since  the  age  of  14  years 
filled  various  arduous  and  responsible  positions  ;  for  half 
my  life,  certainly,  I  have  been  used  to  write  from  dictation, 
and  can  enable  my  employers  to  do  more  business  in  one 
hour,  and  in  better  shape,  than  they  would  do  for  them- 
selves in  six :  this  may  seem  incredible,  but  it  is  absolutely 
the  fact.  I  can  refer  to  numerous  friends  in  England  and 
America  to  testify  as  to  my  character  for  probity  and 
honor.  My  salary  is  $1,500  (i.  e.,  £300),  but  I  feel  I  am 
frittering  it  away  uselessly  while  such  men  as  yourself  and 
Mr.  Macauby  could  render  such  increased  service  to  the 
world,  with  assistance  such  as  I  can  afford  them. 

"  I  am  of  strictly  temperate  habits,  of  an  energetic  dis- 
position, not  ill-manneredly  nor  unamiable  I  believe,  am 
married,  have  a  small  family,  am  in  comfortable  circum- 
stances, own  my  little  cottage  and  bit  of  ground,  but  will 
cast  my  bread  upon  the  waters  if  you  say  the  word :  that 
you  want  me ;  for  the  chief  aspiration  of  my  existence  is 


STAY  AT  SUTTOK 

to  be  useful  to  my  age,  and  I  know  my  position  and  my 
power ;  and  I  know,  too,  how  liable  I  am  to  be  charged 
with  egotism  when  I  declare  to  you  THE  FACT  that  I  am 
confident  you  would  find  me  to  be  as  invaluable  as  your 
own  right  hand. 

"  I  send  herewith  a  few  specimens  of  my  recent  com- 
position as  indices  whereby  you  may  judge  of  my  caliber. 
I  also  inclose  a  copy  of  a  few  of  my  testimonials,  printed 
by  myself,  for — among  other  accomplishments — I  am  ama- 
teur printer ;  also  a  photographer,  etc.,  etc.  I  send  you  a 
portrait  of  myself,  done  by  myself,  and  remain 
"  With  the  greatest  regret, 

"  Yery  respectfully, 

"  Your  friend  and  servant, 


"  Do  you  mean  to  answer  all  those  letters  ?  "  I  inquired. 
"  E"o,  not  all,"  he  said ;  "  there  are  too  many.  But  I 
always  answer  the  misspelled  ones."  "We  read  as  many  of 
the  reviews  out  loud  as  we  could  get  through  in  one  even- 
ing. Among  them  was  one  which  said  that  the  second 
volume  was  as  full  of  platitudes  as  the  first ;  while  as  for 
that  truism  which  he  dwelt  so  much  on  in  his  first  volume 
— that  the  progress  of  civilization  depends  not  on  moral  but 
intellectual  progress,  it  was  known  and  recognized  by  every- 
one long  before  his  book  was  thought  of.  Mr.  Buckle 
laughed,  and  said,  "  I  have  been  attacked  on  this  point 
more  than  all  the  others  put  together ;  and  now  it  is  called 
a  truism." 9 

The  drawing-room  was  given  up  to  him  during  the 

9  See  page  129,  and  note. 


340  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WHITINGS. 

morning  as  a  study  ;  and  for  tlie  first  few  days  of  his  visit 
he  attempted  to  read  German  for  a  couple  of  hours,  in 
preparation  for  his  third  volume,  for  he  was  always  re- 
studying  the  languages  of  those  countries  on  which  he 
wrote.  He  soon  found,  however,  that  his  brain  was  still 
too  weak.  It  was  not  a  question  of  prudence  in  taxing  it, 
but  simply  of  possibility.  In  place  of  it,  he  frequently  in- 
dulged in  the  "  luxury  "  of  thinking.  The  greater  part  of 
his  two  volumes,  he  told  us,  he  had  thought  out  while  out 
walking ;  and  here  he  would  go  out  and  sit  in  some  field, 
thinking  over  such  subjects  as  whether  Germany  or  Amer- 
ica should  be  first  treated  in  his  next  volume.  Even  Skye 
was  not  allowed  to  accompany  him  on  "  thinking  morn- 
ings," but  delivered  over  to  the  custody  of  one  of  the  boys. 
Sometimes  the  dog  escaped,  and  went  for  long  excursions 
on  its  own  account ;  but  Mr.  Buckle  would  never  allow 
him  to  be  beaten  when  he  returned,  as  the  boys  advised : 
he  gave  him  a  gentle  tap  with  one  finger,  talked  to  him 
reprovingly,  and  pointed  in  the  direction  in  which  he  had 
run  away.  And  Skye  really  looked  as  if  he  understood  it. 
"  If  a  dog  can  not  be  trained  without  being  beaten,"  he 
said,  "  it  is  better  that  he  should  not  be  trained  at  all." 
Once,  when  he  saw  one  of  my  boys  with  a  dog-whip,  he 
advised  me  not  to  let  him  have  it.  "  JSTo  boy  ought  to  be 
intrusted  to  handle  a  whip,"  he  said.  "  They  can  never 
have  sufficient  judgment  to  tell  when,  and  in  what  degree, 
they  should  use  it.  Boys  are,  besides,  generally  cruelly 
inclined,  and  this  propensity  ought  to  be  more  carefully 
checked  than  any  other ;  for  cruelty  is,  perhaps,  the  worst 
of  vices ;  and  cruelty  to  animals  almost  worse  than  cruelty 
to  human  beings,  so  utterly  helpless  are  they.  For  this 


STAY  AT  SUTTON.  341 

reason  Rarey's  system  of  breaking  horses  was  so  meritori- 
ous, because  lie  substituted  firmness  and  kindness  for  un- 
thinking brutality."  For  his  dog  he  had  a  great  affection ; 
indeed,  he  said  that  he  could  not  conceive  it  possible  for 
anybody  to  have  much  to  do  with  any  animal  without  get- 
ting fond  of  it. 

Mr.  Buckle's  proof  of  the  non-dynamical  character  of 
morals,  though  it  seems  clear  enough  to  most  readers,  was, 
nevertheless,  often  misunderstood.  Many  people  thought 
that,  because  morals  were  incapable  of  producing  civiliza- 
tion, Buckle  considered  them  to  be  useless.  The  reason 
was  that  so  many  fail  to  grasp  the  difference  between 
general  and  individual  effects  —  a  subject  which  is  dis- 
cussed elsewhere  in  this  volume.  Hence  it  was  that  a 
gentleman  once  said  to  him,  pointing  to  his  little  boy, 
"  Were  I  to  act  in  accordance  with  your  teaching,  I  should 
take  all  possible  pains  to  cultivate  the  intellect  of  that 
child,  and  leave  his  moral  character  to  take  care  of  itself." 
Yet  it  would  be  impossible  to  state  more  distinctly  the 
exact  opposite  of  Mr.  Buckle's  ideas  on  education.  The 
first  thing  to  look  to  was  a  child's  health  and  moral  char- 
acter ;  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect  was  secondary ;  and 
a  healthy  child,  whose  tastes  had  been  fostered  but  not 
forced,  would  obtain  knowledge  for  himself  when  his 
mind  was  sufficiently  matured.  The  only  time  he  had 
punished  his  little  nephew  was  once  when  he  had  bullied 
his  sister.  On  the  other  hand,  his  constant  advice  to  Mr. 
Capel  was:  "Don't  give  the  boys  too  many  lessons." 
"Were  it  necessary  to  neglect  one  of  the  two,  he  would 
rather  have  the  intellectual  side  abandoned  than  the  emo- 
tional and  moral.  And  most  particularly  in  the  case  of 


34:2  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

women,  in  whom  lie  valued  "  womanly  "  qualities  far  more 
than  cultivated  intellect.  It  was  on  this  account  that  he 
thought  it  so  bad  for  a  woman  to  remain  unmarried; 
"for,"  said  he,  "unless  occupied  in  active  benevolence, 
their  affections  are  starved  in  a  celibate  state." 

"We  were  talking  one  evening  of  that  passage  in  his 
second  volume :  "  They  taught  the  father  to  smite  the  un- 
believing, and  to  slay  his  own  boy  sooner  than  propagate 
error.  As  if  this  were  not  enough,  they  tried  to  extirpate 
another  affection,  even  more  sacred  and  more  devoted  still. 
They  laid  their  rude  and  merciless  hands  on  the  holiest 
passion  of  which  our  nature  is  capable,  the  love  of  a  moth- 
er for  her  son.  Into  that  sanctuary  they  dared  to  intrude ; 
into  that  they  thrust  their  gaunt  and  ungentle  forms."  10 
"  Mr.  Capel,"  I  said,  "  is  always  preaching  severity  to  me, 
and  wanting  me  to  act  the  Spartan."  "  Don't  listen  to 
him,"  remonstrated  Mr.  Buckle.  "  Never  hide  your  affec- 
tion from  your  children.  No  successes  in  after-life  which 
severity  can  lead  to  will  ever  compensate  for  the  want  of 
a  mother's  love." 

I  remember  the  sad  expression  of  his  face  while  talk- 
ing on  this  subject,  the  sadness  with  which  he  spoke  of  the 
lot  of  those  who  have  no  one  to  love  them,  and  no  one 
whom  they  may  love.  "I  keep  my  affections  alive  by 
reading  '  Shakespeare ',"  he  said.  Sometimes,  indeed,  his 
own  bereaved  state  would  produce  fits  of  depression  and 
despair  of  the  future;  but  he  never  saddened  others  by 
dwelling  any  length  of  time  on  the  blessings  which  had 
been  denied  to  him ;  and  his  buoyant  and  sanguine  tem- 
perament made  him  habitually  look  at  the  bright  side  of 
10  Yol.  ii.,  p.  407. 


STAY  AT  BUTTON.  343 

everything.  His  studies,  which  had  made  him  better  ac- 
quainted than  most  people  with  the  enormous  amount  of 
misery  to  which  mankind  has  been,  and  is,  subjected,  had 
not  extinguished  his  conviction  that  the  total  amount  of 
mundane  happiness  exceeds  that  misery;  one  of  the  best 
proofs  of  which  is,  that  were  it  not  so,  people  would  not 
cling  so  to  life.  He  sympathized  with  "Wilhelm  von  Hum- 
boldt's  saying,  that  in  "  that  marvelous  piece  of  work,  man, 
both  grief  and  sensibility  may  coexist  with  a  temperament 
otherwise  happy."  ]  But  the  sentence  preceding  this : 
"  True  sorrow  is  ever  present  to  a  well-nurtured  soul,"  13  he 
would  have  put :  "  Only  those  of  a  powerful  imagination  are 
capable  of  feeling  true  sorrow ;  for  they  alone  can  idealize 
the  object  of  their  affection.  Whatever  new  ties  they  may 
afterward  form,  however  enjoyable  life  may  again  become 
to  them,  the  image  of  the  lost  one  will  be  ever  present. 
The  unimaginative  may  feel,  perhaps,  the  absence  of  a 
f amih'ar  face ;  but  their  loss  is  nothing  more  than  a  broken 
habit. "'  For  him,  then,  it  was  plain  that  the  loss  of  his 
mother  was  irreparable.  From  the  time  of  her  death  he 
had  never  been  able  to  talk  of  her.  If  his  friends  tried  to 
lead  him  on  to  that  topic,  he  always  changed  the  conversa- 
tion. Once  only,  when  we  happened  to  talk  of  fine  wo- 
manly natures,  their  characteristics,  and  how  they  differed 
from  others,  he  burst  out  with,  "  I  wish  you  had  known 
my  mother !  She  was.  .  .  ."  But  this  was  the  only  time 
we  heard  him  allude  to  her.  His  aunt  was  very  unhappy 
about  it,  thinking  that  could  he  be  got  to  talk  of  his  moth- 

11  "In  dem  wunderbaren  menschlichen  Gemiith  konnen  Schmerz  und 
Empfindung  eines  in  anderer  Hinsicht  gliicklichen  Darseins  gleichzeitig 
neben  einander  fortleben." 

is  "  In  gutgenarteten  Seelen  ist  ein  wahrer  Schmerz  immer  ewig." 


344  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  ASTD  WETTINGS. 

er  his  grief  might  be  softened.  But  old  Dr.  Mayo  recom- 
mended that  he  should  be  allowed  to  follow  his  instinct. 
"  Wait  a  little,  and  he  will  begin  to  speak  of  her  of  his 
own  accord,  and  then  she  will  be  on  his  lips  continually." 
And  the  event  justified  the  prediction.  A  gentleman  who 
met  Mr.  Buckle  not  long  afterward  in  Egypt  said  that  he 
spoke  so  much  of  her  that  it  produced  the  impression  that 
she  was  still  alive ;  while  the  writer  in  the  "  Atlantic 
Monthly,"  who  met  him  at  Cairo,  says  that  Mr.  Buckle 
declared  most  impressively  his  belief  in  a  future  state,  and 
that  life  would  be  insupportable  if  he  thought  he  should 
be  for  ever  separated  from  one  person  —  probably  his 
mother.18 

"When  Mr.  Buckle  first  joined  us  at  Sutton,  continues 
Mrs.  Huth,  he  told  us  that  bodily  he  was  much  stronger, 
and  could  do  a  little  work ;  but  it  was  evident  that  his 
head  was  still  very  weak.  Soon  after  his  arrival  he  en- 
deavored to  explain  to  me  the  theory  of  latent  heat.  I 
failed  to  understand  it,  and  after  a  time  he  stopped  abrupt- 
ly, and  said,  "  I  have  not  my  powers  of  explanation ;  per- 
haps I  shall  be  better  able  to  make  it  clear  to  you  some 
other  day."  Undoubtedly,  it  was  my  fault  for  being  so 
dull  of  comprehension ;  but  how  often  had  I  been  as  dull, 
and  even  duller,  on  former  occasions !  Yet  never  before 
had  he  dropped  a  subject  before  he  had  given  me  a  clear 
view  of  it.  After  a  fortnight  had  passed,  he  seemed  to 
grow  stronger,  though  he  still  complained  of  his  nervous- 
ness and  absence  of  mind.  The  fact  that  he  had  sent  off 
a  check  and  forgotten  to  cross  it  seemed  to  annoy  him 
very  much.  "  I  should  not  have  done  such  a  thing  a  year 

13  "Atlantic  Monthly  "  for  April,  1863,  p.  498. 


STAY  AT  SUTTOK  345 

ago,"  lie  said.  Yet  lie  was  now  able  to  enter  into  elabo- 
rate explanations,  giving,  for  instance,  a  full  account  of 
the  Utilitarian  philosophy  apropos  of  Mill's  first  chapter 
on  that  subject,  which  was  expected  in  the  forthcoming 
"  Eraser."  Mr.  Buckle  gave  us  its  whole  history,  from  the 
germ  of  the  idea  to  its  latest  development.  But  it  seemed 
to  me  so  cold  and  mechanical  a  creed,  so  inadequate  to 
meet  human  needs,  so  harsh  to  human  weakness,  that  for 
several  days  afterward  I  kept  attacking  him  on  that  sub- 
ject. "  You  will  see  it  in  time,"  he  said  gently.  "  It  is 
very  natural  that  you  should  find  some  difficulty  at  first  in 
thinking  yourself  into  it.  You  have  grown  up,  and  lived 
all  your  life,  in  an  atmosphere  of  theological  ideas,  and 
you  can  not  change  suddenly.  But  you  will  see  it  in  time, 
for  you  have  a  very  good,  clear  understanding." 

I  repeat  this  compliment,  such  as  it  is,  not  from  any 
sense  of  vanity,  but  simply  because  it  was  the  only  one  he 
ever  paid  me,  and  because  the  way  in  which  he  said  it  was 
characteristic  of  him.  Most  people  consider  themselves 
gifted  with  a  clear  understanding ;  yet,  so  afraid  was  he 
lest  he  might  be  thought  to  flatter,  that  he  immediately 
added,  "  And  I  don't  say  this  just  to  give  you  pleasure ; 
I  mean  it  really." 

When  the  first  chapter  of  the  "  Utilitarianism "  ap- 
peared, Mr.  Buckle  was  delighted  with  it ;  and,  pointing 
out  a  single  passage,  said,  "  Now,  if  I  had  seen  this,  no 
matter  where,  I  should  have  recognized  the  pen  of  Mill. 
He  is  the  only  man  I  have  a  very  strong  desire  to  know, 
and  him  I  have  never  seen."  "  Then  why  did  you  not 

accept  Mrs. 's  invitation,  when  she  promised  to  bring 

you  together  ? "  "  Oh,  I  was  not  strong  enough  this  sum- 


346  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

mer,"  he  answered ;  "  the  excitement  would  have  been  too 
much  for  me."  And  in  the  course  of  the  conversation  he 
observed :  "  If  Mill  and  I  differ  in  opinion  on  any  subject, 
I  always  have  a  latent  belief  that  he  is  right  and  that  I  am 
wrong."  From  Mill  the  conversation  turned  on  other  emi- 
nent men.  Of  Dr.  Stanley  he  spoke  very  highly :  "  He 
thinks  for  himself";  and,  contrasting  him  with  other 
theologians,  said  that  few  went  through  the  necessary 
study  for  their  subject.  Theologians  should  study  the  his- 
tory of  belief  in  all  the  ancient  creeds ;  that  a  knowledge 
of  Buddhism  is  necessary,  for  instance,  to  the  right  under- 
standing of  Christianity.  "  Buddhism,"  he  continued,  "  is, 
besides,  a  most  philosophical  creed  " ;  and  he  traced  the 
analogy  between  the  transcendental  philosophy  of  Buddha 
and  that  of  Fichte  in  its  pantheistic  tendencies.  From 
pantheism  to  spirit-rapping  was  but  a  step ;  and  one  of  us 
remarked  that  some  of  these  Spiritualists  make  a  religion 
of  it,  and  hold  in  the  greatest  reverence  any  communica- 
tion they  may  receive.  A  little  girl  got  a  message  from 
her  departed  grandmother,  advising  the  family  to  go  to 
the  pantomime ;  and  accordingly  all  gravely  went  off,  in 
obedience  to  the  message.  "  And  very  good  advice,  too," 
Mr.  Buckle  said,  smiling.  He  added,  that  he  had  himself 
been  at  a  seance  last  June,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life. 
Some  of  the  manifestations  seemed  to  him  totally  inex- 
plicable by  any  known  natural  laws ;  but  he  meant  to  in- 
quire into  the  subject  carefully  as  soon  as  he  should  be 
restored  to  his  usual  health.  He  considered  it  the  duty 
of  every  one  to  rescue  phenomena  from  the  domain  of  the 
miraculous,  and  to  marshal  them,  whenever  possible,  under 
the  heads  of  natural  law.  Neither  the  so-called  experi- 


STAY  AT  STJTTOK  347 

ments  of  Keichenbach,  nor  the  marvelous  powers  ascribed 
to  clairvoyants,  would  he  pronounce  to  be  frauds.  But  in 
all  these  matters  he  thought  that  people  were  fax  too  ready 
to  play  into  the  hands  of  deceivers,  by  being  more  eager 
to  see  and  be  astonished  than  to  coolly  balance  facts  and 
ascertain  the  truth.  Mr.  Mayo  had  pressed  him  to  attend 
a  clairvoyant's  secmce /  and  he  agreed  to  do  so,  with  the 
condition  that,  instead  of  the  guinea  entrance  fee,  the  clair- 
voyant should  have  a  fifty-pound  note  if  he  could  read  its 
number  while  it  was  inclosed  in  a  box.  But  this  condition 
was  not  accepted.  He  had  a  short  time  before  been  at  a 
seance  in  a  private  house,  where  the  clairvoyant  was  a 
young  lady,  a  friend  of  the  hostess.  He  did  not  exactly 
disbelieve  in  her  powers,  as  he  had  not  investigated  the 
subject.  She  told  him,  among  other  things,  that  his  skull 
was  remarkably  thin;  and  he  really  thought  it  was,  he 
added,  laughing. 

"Whenever  he  traveled  about,  he  always  got  into  conver- 
sation with  the  police  and  school-teachers  of  every  place  he 
stopped  at.  He  used  to  inquire  what  particular  crimes 
were  prevalent  in  each  district,  and  found  that  they  were 
much  the  same  all  over  the  country :  "  People  have  so  lit- 
tle imagination,"  he  complained,  with  a  grave  face — as  if 
this  want  of  imagination  in  criminal  acts  were  a  matter  of 
serious  concern  to  him.  In  large  towns,  such  as  Birming- 
ham, he  used  to  walk  through  all  the  worst  parts,  to  ob- 
serve manners  for  himself,  and  remarked  that  he  might, 
as  in  the  well-known  anecdote,  put  down  under  the  head 
of  manners — none.  In  answer  to  a  question,  he  said  it 
might  have  been  dangerous  for  a  weak  man  like  himself, 
but  he  was  tall  and  carried  a  good  stick,  and  always 


348  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

walked  in  the  middle  of  the  road  to  give  less  opportu- 
nity to  people  to  pick  a  quarrel.  It  was  necessary  to  see 
everything  he  wrote  on,  especially  concerning  England, 
with  his  own  eyes. 

Of  the  teachers  he  inquired,  among  other  things,  what 
were  the  punishments  inflicted  in  their  schools.  One 
schoolmistress  told  him  that,  when  she  first  came,  finding 
that  the  girls  were  very  unpunctual,  she  warned  them  that 
all  who  came  late  should  have  three  strokes  with  the  cane 
on  the  hand,  and  that  after  the  first  two  weeks  she  very 
rarely  had  occasion  to  punish  them.  The  master  of  a 
school  in  another  place  told  him  that  the  vicar  had  for- 
bidden corporal  punishment,  and  obliged  him,  instead,  to 
keep  the  boys  in  and  give  them  tasks;  with  the  conse- 
quence that  they  became  very  much  duller.  "  There  is 
nothing  like  the  cane,"  Mr.  Buckle  added ;  "  a  few  strokes 
that  sting  and  will  be  felt  several  hours  after  make  a  boy 
careful,  and  don't  interfere  with  his  health."  "  You  must 
deal  with  boys  either  in  a  rational  or  in  an  irrational  man- 
ner," he  said  to  another  friend.  "  If  they  will  listen  to  the 
arguments  of  their  superiors,  you  do  not  require  punish- 
ment ;  but  if  they  will  not  listen  to  reason,  you  must  treat 
them  as  irrational  beings,  and  flog  them."  Some  of  these 
village  teachers  were  well-informed  men.  One  of  them 
spoke  to  him  of  the  authors  of  the  "Essays  and  Reviews," 
praising  their  boldness ;  and  then  went  on  to  say,  "  But 
there  is  another,  even  bolder  man,  of  whom  I  dare  say  you 
have  heard,  and  whose  book  you  have  probably  read — I 
mean  Buckle."  "  What  has  he  done  ? "  Mr.  Buckle  asked. 
" Buckle,  don't  you  know  Buckle  ! "  "I  saw  that  I  was 
falling  in  his  esteem  through  my  ignorance,"  Mr.  Buckle 


STAY  AT  BUTTON1.  349 

said,  laughing,  "  so  I  said,  <  Oh  yes,  Buckle  to  be  sure ' ; 
and  took  my  leave." 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  how  thorough  a  master  he 
was  of  the  art  of  pleasing  ;  how  he  was  as  ready  to  amuse 
the  children  as  he  was  grown  people  ;  his  joyous  nature ; 
his  inexhaustible  but  never-tiring  talk ;  his  wealth  of  anec- 
dotes, and  especially  the  way  in  which  they  were  told, 
which  made  them  as  amusing  when  he  repeated  himself 
(as  he  sometimes  did)  as  when  heard  for  the  first  time ;  or 
to  describe  his  appreciation  of  every  little  attention,  and 
the  warm  interest  he  took  in  what  were  matters  of  mo- 
ment for  others.  How  naturally  he  entered  into  all  the 
hopes  and  fears  of  his  hostess  concerning  her  family,  ask- 
ing questions,  giving  advice,  and  all  with  the  deepest  in- 
terest. We  remember  how  touched  and  soothed  we  felt 
when  one  of  our  children  fell  ill,  and  we,  hearing  its  cries, 
rushed  up  to  the  nursery,  leaving  him  alone  in  the  draw- 
ing-room. We  stopped  there  some  time,  and  quite  forgot 
our  visitor ;  but  when  we  came  out  he  was  standing,  wait- 
ing patiently,  outside  the  nursery  door,  to  learn  from  us 
what  was  amiss.  I  see  the  expression  of  his  face  now  as 
he  said  to  us  in  a  suppliant  tone,  "  Don't  look  so  anxious ; 
it  will  be  better  to-morrow."  And  the  next  day,  gently 
reproaching  me,  he  said,  "  You  ought  not  to  have  let  so 
young  a  child  go  to  the  Crystal  Palace.  It  is  all  very  well 
for  the  elder  ones  to  have  such  amusements,  but  the  little 
things  should  be  kept  as  quiet  as  possible."  And  then  he 
went  on  to  say  at  what  age  and  with  what  temperament 
sight-seeing  and  the  like  excitement  was  beneficial,  and 
when  it  was  likely  to  be  harmful,  adding,  "  Now,  if  you. 
had  asked  my  advice,  I  could  have  told  you  all  this  yester- 


350  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

day,  and  the  child  would  have  been  saved  pain" — so  ac- 
customed was  he  by  this  time  to  have  his  advice  sought  on 
every  subject.  "  If  I  were  to  take  a  profession,"  he  once 
said,  "  I  should  like  to  be  a  physician ;  nothing  would  give 
me  more  pleasure  than  to  assuage  pain." 

An  old  lady,  who  had  known  Mr.  Buckle  from  his 
boyhood,  burst  into  tears  when  these  and  other  little  sto- 
ries were  repeated  to  her.  "  It  was  not  vulgar  curiosity 
with  him,"  she  said ;  "  it  was  not  that  he  was  meddlesome. 
I  knew  him  so  well.  It  was  all  part  and  parcel  of  his 
great  sympathy.  Oh,  it  was  more  than  human,"  she  went 
on,  "  and  imparted  a  more  than  earthly  soothing  effect.  I 
shall  never  forget  what  he  was  to  me  when  I  found  myself 
suddenly  alone  in  the  world,  and  what  he  was  to  me  ever 
afterward.  Even  though  he  had  only  a  few  days  in  town 
to  prepare  for  his  Eastern  journey,  he  walked  across  the 
park  to  see  me,  and  to  bid  me  farewell.  He  asked  about 
my  health ;  he  gave  me  advice.  He  did  it  as  if  it  were 
both  a  pleasure  and  a  duty  to  see  that  I  did  the  right  thing 
for  myself  before  he  left  England.  I  am  neither  hand- 
some nor  clever,  nor  have  I  rank  or  title,  but  he  never 
forgot  that  his  mother  had  been  fond  of  me !  And  I 
have  often  been  made  a  good  deal  of  by  other  people,  sim- 
ply because  they  saw  that  the  celebrated  Buckle  treated 
me  with  such  respect." 

Often  was  Mr.  Buckle  attacked  by  his  friends  because 
he  did  not  marry  ;  but  the  fact  was  that  up  to  his  moth- 
er's death  he  never  felt  lonely ;  and  perhaps  his  previous 
wounds,  and  his  entire  devotion  to  his  book,  made  him 
even  unwilling  to  marry.  But  after  this  he  acknowledged 
his  mistake — he  was  alone,  terribly  alone,  in  the  world. 


PREPARATIONS  FOR  EGYPT.  351 

"If  at  least  my  little  nephew  had  lived,"  he  said,  "I 
should  have  had  a  friend  in  time :  I  would  have  made 
something  of  him.  But,"  he  continued  in  a  lower  tone, 
"  what  I  love  I  lose ;  and  now  that  I  am  near  forty  I  am 
alone ! " 

"  If  I  am  not  better,  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  travel- 
ing ;  as  while  I  am  stationary  I  must  work,"  he  wrote 
long  ago ; 14  and  it  was  much  the  same  case  now.  The 
prospect  of  an  idle  winter  in  town  was  insupportable,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  travel  somewhere.  Perhaps  it  was 
owing  to  Major  Woodhead's  suggestion  that  he  finally 
decided  on  going  to  Egypt.  "  My  head  is  at  times  still 
weak,  and  I  feel  that  I  need  more  rest  and  relaxation,"  he 
writes  from  Button,15  and  "I  can  not  tell  you,"  he  writes 
to  Mrs.  Bowyear,  "  the  intense  pleasure  with  which  I  look 
forward  to  seeing  Egypt — that  strange,  mutilated  form  of 
civilization.  For  years  nothing  has  excited  me  so  much.16 
I  shall  go  up  the  Nile  as  far  as  Egypt,  and  probably  return 
to  England  about  the  end  of  January." 

It  was  all  of  a  piece  with  his  thoughtful  and  self-sacri- 
ficing kindness  that  he  offered  to  take  the  two  eldest  sons 
of  his  host  with  him.  What  would  he  himself  have  given 
when  a  boy  to  have  traveled  in  the  land  of  the  Thousand 
and  One  Nights !  And  holding  travel  to  be  a  necessary 
and  important  part  of  education,  and  knowing  the  value 
of  his  own  influence  and  teaching,  he  thought  the  im- 
mense benefit  he  was  conferring  would  fully  compensate 
him  for  the  trouble,  anxiety,  and  even  labor,  their  com- 

14  To  Miss  Shirreff,  22d  December,  1856. 

15  24th  September,  1861. 

16  13th-19th  October,  1861. 


352  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

panionship  must  entail.  "  Even  in  our  times  the  impor- 
tance of  traveling  is  obvious,"  lie  writes  in  his  "  Common- 
place Book,"  "  "  and  we  rarely  find  an  untraveled  man 
who  is  not  full  of  prejudice  and  bigotry." 

All  his  time,  on  returning  to  London,  was  occupied  in 
preparation  for  his  journey  and  that  of  his  young  com- 
panions : 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  1M  October,  1861. 

"  MY  DEAR  MRS.  HUTH  :  I  have  just  had  a  long  talk 
with  the  dear,  kind  old  man,  Dr  Mayo.  Extremely  satis- 
factory in  every  respect,  particularly  as  to  the  good,  both 
physical  and  intellectual,  which  he  anticipates  for  the  boys. 
But  he  suggests  one  or  two  things  of  importance.  .  .  . 

"My  conversation  with  Dr.  Mayo  has  confirmed  my 
confidence  in  being  able  to  meet  any  event  which  can 
arise  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature.  And  as  impunity 
and  absence  of  risk  are  always  impossible,  this  is  all  we 
can  expect.  Give  my  love  to  the  boys,  and  read  this  note 
to  the  little  men.  I  am  sure  they  will  be  very  obedient, 
and,  by  their  docility,  will  help  my  endeavors  to  secure 
their  health  and  happiness." 

"59  OXFORD  TERRACE,  18th  October,  1861. 
"  DEAR  MRS.  GROTE  :  Your  friendly  reproaches  have 
reached  me  at  a  moment  when  I  am  is  the  midst  of  prep- 
arations for  my  departure  to  the  East,  and  have  conse- 
quently but  a  short  time  to  defend  myself.  Early  to- 
morrow I  leave  for  Southampton,  and  sail  thence  for 
Alexandria.  I  shall  ascend  the  Nile  to  the  first  cataract, 

17  Fragments  on  "  Traveling."    "  Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  Works," 
vol  i.,  p.  524. 


PREPARATIONS  FOR  EGYPT.  353 

and  thus  gratify  one  of  the  most  cherished  wishes  of  my 
childhood.  I  am  literally  pining  with  excitement  at  the 
prospect  of  seeing  the  remains  of  that  powerful  but  imper- 
fectly developed  nation,  whose  existence  has  always  been 
to  me  as  a  dream. 

"  I  am  much  better,  and,  indeed,  quite  well  in  every 
respect,  save  the  most  important.  I  can  not  work,  and 
therefore  my  life  has  not  been  very  happy ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  has  sauntered  on  untroubled.  I  have  been 
traveling  in  Wales  and  many  parts  of  England,  spending 
nearly  three  weeks  at  Carolside,  in  Berwickshire,  with  the 
Mitchells — pleasant  and  accomplished  people,  and  extreme- 
ly kind. 

"  I  wish  for  the  next  few  months  to  sever  myself,  if 
possible,  from  all  old  associations,  and,  as  it  were,  begin 
life  afresh.  Consequently,  I  shall  write  no  letters,  and 
shall  not  have  any  forwarded  to  me.  After  Egypt,  per- 
haps I  may  go  to  Greece,  perhaps  to  Algiers,  pel-haps  to 
Jerusalem ;  but  wherever  I  may  be  I  shall  retain  a  lively 
sense  of  the  pleasant  hours  I  have  passed  with  you.  Some- 
times I  fear  that  I  have  permanently  hurt  myself,  and  form 
plans  of  leaving  London  altogether — but  time  will  show," 

23 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Responsibility— Kindness— Alexandria— Cairo— The  Nile— Education— Thebes 
— Talk  with  Mr.  Longmore — Nubia — Love  of  Antiquities — Preparations  for 
the  Desert — Stay  in  Cairo — Suez — Major  Macdonald — Sinai — Petra — Jeru- 
salem—Dead Sea— Mill  on  Buckle— Nabulus— Nazareth— The  Fatal  Illness 
—Visit  from  Mr.  Gray— Tiberias— Akka— Tyre— Sidon— The  Last  Letter— 
Beyrout — Damascus — Illness  increasing — Death. 

ON  Sunday,  20th  October,  1861,  Buckle  embarked  at 
Southampton  on  the  Peninsular  and  Oriental  Company's 
steamship  Ceylon,  for  Alexandria,  and  saw  the  shores  of 
England  for  the  last  time.  He  had  now  undertaken,  for 
the  first  time  in  his  life,  the  responsible  care  of  two  chil- 
dren, one  fourteen  and  the  other  eleven  years  old,  of  whom, 
moreover,  he  knew  little  beyond  what  he  had  gleaned  from 
their  parents  and  the  family  physician.  He  knew  his  re- 
sponsibility, and  undertook  their  care  as  none  without  his 
depth  of  feeling  and  warmth  of  heart  could  have  done. 
How  he  understood  it  is  shown  by  the  following  letter, 
written  soon  after  his  return  from  Nubia : 

"I  do  not  wonder  at  your  anxiety  in  being  so  long 
without  intelligence ;  but  I  have  done  all  in  my  power, 
and  have  never,  since  we  left  England,  allowed  a  post  to 
go  by  without  writing.  Your  picture  of  your  imagination 
of  my  hanging  over  the  bed  of  a  sick  boy,  and  bringing  you 
back  a  child  the  less,  has  gone  to  my  very  heart,  and  made 
me  feel  quite  miserable,  since  I  know  what  must  have 


RESPONSIBILITY.  355 

• 

passed  through  your  mind  and  what  you  must  have 
suffered  before  you  would  write  this.  But  why,  dear 
Mrs.  Huth,  why  will  you  allow  your  judgment  to  be  led 
captive  by  such  dark  imaginings  ?  I  never  begin  any  con? 
siderable  enterprise  without  well  weighing  the  objections 
against  it.  In  taking  your  children  where  I  have  taken 
them,  and  where  they  are  about  to  go,  I  have  estimated  all 
the  difficulties,  or,  if  you  will,  all  the  dangers,  and  I  know 
that  I  am  able  to  meet  them.  I  say  that  I  KNOW  it.  And 
I  am  too  deeply  conscious  of  my  own  responsibility  to 
write  such  a  word  loosely  or  rashly.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
some  rare  combination  of  events,  or  some  insidious  physi- 
cal action,  creeping  unobserved  through  the  human  frame, 
and  stealthily  coming  on  years  before,  may  prostrate  one 
of  your  boys,  as  it  may  prostrate  you  or  your  husband. 
This  may  happen  in  the  healthiest  climate,  and  in  spite  of 
the  tenderest  care.  But  it  is  my  deliberate  opinion  that 
until  you  see  your  boys  again  they  will  run  no  risk  greater 
than  they  would  have  run  had  they  spent  the  same  time 
under  your  roof.  The  excitement  of  the  brain  caused  by 
traveling  and  the  scenes  through  which  they  pass  is  in  it- 
self a  source  of  health ;  and  though  you,  of  course,  love 
your  children  better  than  I  do,  and  better,  indeed,  than 
any  one  does — for  who  knows  so  well  as  I  that  no  love 
can  equal  the  love  of  a  mother  ? — still,  even  you  could  not 
watch  them  more  carefully  than  I  do  ;  and,  as  you  would 
be  the  first  to  acknowledge,  you  would  watch  them  with 
less  knowledge  both  of  what  should  be  guarded  against 
and  what  should  be  done.  The'  boys  are,  and  have  been 
all  along,  in  perfect  health.  ...  As  the  boys  were  vac- 
cinated three  years  ago,  there  is  no  occasion  to  repeat  the 


356  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

operation.  The  protection  is  complete.  There  are  in- 
stances of  persons  having  the  small-pox  who  have  been  so 
recently  vaccinated,  just  as  there  are  instances  of  persons 
having  the  small-pox  twice.  But  there  are  also  instances 
of  people  being  killed  on  the  railroad ;  and  as  there  are  no 
railroads  in  Palestine  or  Syria,  we  may  fairly  put  one  dan- 
ger against  the  other,  both  being  about  equal.  .  .  .  Mean- 
while, do  not  be  uneasy ;  I  pray  you,  do  not  be  uneasy.  I 
know  well  what  I  am  doing,  and  I  know  how  much  de- 
pends on  my  doing  it  properly.  Besides,  if  you  give  way 
to  anxiety,  you  will  make  yourself  ill ;  and,  if  you  get  ill, 
my  excellent  friend  Huth  will  hate  me  as  the  cause,  and, 
maybe,  will  poison  me  in  my  food  when  I  come  home. 
So  be  of  good  cheer." 

They  had  not  got  cabins  together,  as  Buckle  had  taken 
his  before  it  was  decided  that  the  boys  should  accompany 
him ;  but  they  were  not  separated  even  for  one  night,  for, 
on  the  day  they  started,  the  two  gentlemen  who  had  berths 
in  Mr.  Buckle's  cabin  good-naturedly  exchanged,  and  they 
were  all  together.  To  this  Mr.  Buckle  alludes  in  one  of  his 
letters  :  "  I  had  a  little  difficulty  about  getting  them  into 
my  cabin,  because  I  had  to  talk  over  two  different  gentle- 
men, the  inmates  of  it.  But,  somehow  or  other,  I  generally 
end  by  getting  my  own  way,  and  we  are  now  all  together." 

Buckle  at  this  time  was  aged  thirty-nine,  but  looked 
fully  forty-five,  and  would  have  looked  even  older  but  for 
the  rich  brown  color  of  his  hair.  A  tall  and  slender,  but 
not  thin  figure,  slightly  bowed ;  a  dignified  carriage ;  a 
bald  head,  with  the  hair  brushed  over  it,  as  in  the  frontis- 
piece ;  the  beginnings  of  a  beard ;  a  short,  slightly  aquiline 
nose ;  a  high  forehead ;  and  singularly  vivacious  eyes  made 


KINDNESS.  357 

up  a  figure  which  struck  one  as  refined,  notwithstanding 
his  shabby,  though  by  no  means  slovenly,  dress.  He  wore 
for  the  journey  an  old  swallow-tailed  coat,  o£  a  cut  that 
was  somewhat  out  of  date,  but  such  as  I  have  seen  worn 
by  old-fashioned  men  ten  years  after  his  death,  a  double- 
breasted  brown  waistcoat,  and  dark  trousers.  In  cold 
weather  he  wore  an  old  brown  overcoat,  which  he  had 
worn  for  many  years,  and  hoped  to  wear  many  years  more ; 
for,  as  he  says  in  one  of  his  letters,  "  My  maxim  is  econ- 
omy, not  parsimony;  and,  though  I  never  throw  away 
money,  I  never  spare  it  on  emergencies."  He  thought 
that  men  should  be  careless  of  their  dress,  and  had  a  great 
contempt  for  those  who  decked  out  their  persons  with 
jewels.  But  he  liked  to  see  women  pay  attention  to  dress, 
and  once  said,  "  it  was  a  woman's  duty  to  look  well,"  as 
long  as  they  did  not  pay  too  much ;  though  he  would 
rather  see  a  woman  careless  than  vain,  and  slovenly  than 
devote  all  her  thought  to  personal  decoration. 

His  care  and  attention  to  the  two  boys  was  unremitting, 
and  during  the  first  two  or  three  days,  while  they  were 
still  sea-sick,  he  used  even  to  fetch  them  books,  wrappers, 
and  all  they  needed.  The  only  books  he  had  brought  with 
him  were,  Sharpe's  "  History  of  Egypt,"  Osborn's  "  Monu- 
mental History  of  Egypt,"1  Martineau's  "Egypt,  Past 
and  Present,"  EusselFs  "Egypt,"  Bonn's  "Herodotus," 
Milman's  "History  of  the  Jews,"  "Murray,"  the  Bible, 
"  Shakespeare,"  and  "  Moliere,"  and  he  allowed  no  others, 
because  he  wished  to  drive  the  boys  by  very  weariness  to 
read  the  books  he  had  brought,  knowing  well  that,  since 
they  were  accustomed  to  read,  and  as  there  was  little  that 

1  Which  he  thought  did  not  add  to  the  reputation  of  its  author. 


358  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

could  amuse  them  on  board,  they  would  require  no  other 
inducement  to  read  on  the  history  of  the  country  they  were 
about  to  visit.  His  plan  was  perfectly  successful,  and  they 
not  only  read,  but  took  a  pride  in  reading.  For  himself,  be- 
sides talk,  his  chief  amusement  was  draughts  with  a  gentle- 
man on  board,  who  happened  to  be  a  good  player,  but  who 
could  never  understand  how  it  was  that  Buckle  always  won. 

Nothing  of  interest  occurred  during  the  voyage,  with 
the  exception  of  some  wonderful  theatricals  brought  out 
by  the  sailors,  who  acted  a  tremendously  sensational  piece 
called  "  Eed-hand,  the  Gypsy."  They  painted  their  sce- 
nery themselves,  with  foliage  Miat  might  have  been  drawn 
by  an  ancient  Egyptian ;  and  the  only  drawback  to  the  full 
enjoyment  of  the  play  was  that  the  Orchestra  shut  out  all 
view  of  the  stage.  The  usual  sights  were  seen,  the  rock 
of  Gibraltar  examined,  and  the  view  enjoyed  from  St. 
George's  Gallery.  Yaletta  was  also  visited,  and  the  Church 
of  St.  John  duly  admired.  The  sea,  which  had  been  rather 
rough  until  Gibraltar  was  reached,  was  like  glass  from 
there  to  Alexandria. 

At  landing,  the  usual  scene  occurred,  familiar  now  to 
all  the  world.  Little  has  changed  since  then.  As  soon  as 
the  Indian  passengers  had  gone  off,  a  boat  was  selected 
from  the  surrounding  flotilla,  and  the  party  made  for  a 
wooden  pier,  so  tightly  packed  with  yelling  Arabs  that  at 
first  it  seemed  impossible  to  land.  A  plentiful  use  of  the 
stick  from  the  presiding  sheik  at  length  made  it  possible. 
How  the  luggage  got  up  was  a  mystery ;  but  it  did,  and  a 
seething  mass  of  blue  and  white  cotton  rags  fought  a  battle 
over  it.  More  use  of  the  stick,  and  each  piece  of  baggage 
took  a  pair  of  legs  to  itself,  and  went  off  in  different  di- 


ALEXANDRIA.  359 

reetions.  It  assembled  again,  however,  where  a  few  offi- 
cials were  lounging  outside  a  shed,  and  was  all  thrown 
down  in  a  heap  in  the  open  street.  A  faint  show  was 
made  of  opening  the  biggest  box,  but  five  shillings  made 
everything  comfortable.  The  Arabs  shouldered  their  bur- 
dens, stood  in  a  row  to  be  counted,  and  then  started  for 
the  Hotel  de  1'Europe.  On  the  way  there  was  a  constant 
bombardment  of  donkeys,  who  are  shoved  by  their  drivers 
pertinaciously  in  the  way ;  and,  as  the  quarter  just  about 
the  landing-place  is  inhabited  chiefly  by  natives,  the  streets 
are  so  narrow  that  walking  through  the  donkeys  is  diffi- 
cult. Soon  a  grave-looking  Oriental,  in  Turkish  dress,  ac- 
costed Mr.  Buckle,  and  showed  him  papers ;  he  was  a 
dragoman,  and  was  showing  his  testimonials  from  former 
travelers.  Buckle  promised  to  inquire  about  him,  and  the 
hotel  was  at  last  reached.  Here  Mr.  Buckle,  after  his 
usual  custom,  engaged  rooms  on  the  top  floor  of  the  hotel. 
These  were  nice  and  cool,  the  thermometer  showing  only 
Y6°  ;  and  he  then  sallied  forth  to  the  bank,  for  it  was  only 
10  A.  M.,  and  made  inquiries  about  the  dragoman,  Hassan 
Yyse !  so  called  because  he  had  served  the  explorer  of  the 
Pyramids ;  for  the  Arabs  put  the  surname  first,  and  then 
take  a  distinguishing  title  after  it.  The  inquiries  being 
satisfactory,  he  was  engaged,  and  the  day  was  finished  with 
dinner  at  the  t'dble-d'hdte,  and  a  cup  of  coffee  at  a  Turkish 
coffee-house. 

Buckle  spent  the  first  day  or  two  in  making  purchases 
of  tobacco,  Turkish  slippers,  a  pipe,  and  other  prepara- 
tions ;  seeing  Pompey's  Pillar,  and  what  part  of  the  Cata- 
combs was  visible — for  the  pasha  had  lately  had  them  shut 
up,  as  it  was  reported  that  some  treasure  had  been  found 


360  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

there.  But  the  greatest  difficulty  was  finding  a  boat,  or 
dahabeeyeh,  as  they  are  called,  concerning  which,  and  other 
things,  he  wrote  the  following  very  interesting  letter : 

"...  The  heat  is  intense,  and  I  keep  both  the  boys 
indoors  the  greater  part  of  the  day.  I  have  tried  in  vain 
to  get  a  good  European  servant,  so  I  see  after  everything 
myself,  and  am  extremely  particular  about  their  ablutions 
and  change  of  linen,  so  absolutely  necessary  in  such  a  cli- 
mate as  this.  We  received  your  very  welcome  letters  yes- 
terday, having  ourselves  writen  to  you  the  day  before. 
"We  also  wrote  from  Gibraltar  and  Malta.  I  hope  that  we 
shall  start  for  Cairo  in  two  or  three  days  ;  but  the  difficul- 
ties are  great,  owing  to  the  railroad  being  washed  away  by 
the  unusually  high  rise  of  the  Nile.  The  demand  for 
boats  is  consequently  enormous,  and  the  prices  the  owners 
ask  are  fabulous.  I  have  seen  several  boats  to-day,  and 
one  man  demanded  £35  from  here  to  Cairo,  a  journey  of 
three  to  four  days  at  the  outside.  I  have  been  forced  to 
expose  myself  nearly  all  day  to  the  sun — boat-hunting,  and 
am  rather  exhausted;  but  I  feel  in  better  health  and 
spirits  than  at  any  time  during  the  last  three  years.3  Es- 
pecially I  am  conscious  of  an  immense  increase  of  brain 
power,  grasping  great  problems  with  a  firmness  which,  at 
one  time,  I  feared  had  gone  from  me  for  ever.  I  feel  that 
there  is  yet  much  that  I  shall  live  to  do.  Once  you  asked 
me  how  I  rated  myself  in  comparison  with  Mill.  I  now 
certainly  fancy  that  I  can  see  things  which  Mill  does  not ; 
but  I  believe  that,  on  the  whole,  he  is  a  greater  man  than  1 
am,  and  will  leave  a  greater  name  behind  him.  This  is 
egotistical,  but  I  am  only  so  to  those  I  care  for ;  and  my 

2 1.  e.,  since  the  death  of  his  mother. 


ALEXANDRIA.  361 

letters  are  intended  to  be  sacredly  private  to  you  and  your 
husband,  though  I  am  always  willing  that  my  dear  old 
friend  Capey3  shall  see  them — but  NO  ONE  ELSE.*  Tell 
him,  with  my  best  love,  that  I  have  received  his  letter,  and 
will  write  to  him  from  Cairo*5  Your  sons  are  everything 
I  could  wish ;  they  attach  themselves  much  to  me,  and  I 
to  them.  A  Scotchman  on  board  said,  'Why,  dear  me, 
sir,  how  fond  those  boys  do  seem  of  you  ! '  And  so  I  am 
sure  they  are.  I  hope  and  believe  that  this  journey  will 
be  an  epoch  in  their  lives,  morally  and  intellectually. 
They  are  very  diligent  in  reading ;  but  I  never  prescribe 
any  hours  or  daily  task,  merely  telling  them  that  the  only 
reward  I  require  for  watching  over  them  is  that  they 
should  acquire  knowledge.  .  .  . 

"  Tobacco  and  pipes  are  very  cheap ;  everything  else 
enormously  dear :  ale,  two  shillings  a  bottle ;  soda-water, 
one  shilling;  miserable  carriages,  six  shillings  an  hour; 
and  so  forth.  And  yet  with  all  this  the  labor  market  is 
in  such  a  state  that  an  unskilled  laborer  earns  with  diffi- 
culty twopence  a  day.  "Wages  low  and  profits  high." 

At  length  he  found  a  suitable  boat,  iron  built,  and  with 
superior  fittings — not  so  luxurious  as  many  that  are  now 
on  the  Kile,  but  incomparably  superior  to  those  of  Miss 
Martineau's  time.  It  belonged  to  Abdallah  Pasha,  a  Euro- 
pean, had  the  reputation  of  being  fast,  and  was  called  El 


3  The  Rev.  George  Capel,  an  old  friend  of  both  Mr.  Buckle  and  the 
Huths,  and  the  means  of  introduction  between  them. 

4  This  is  the  first  time  this  passage  has  seen  the  light ;  but,  now  that 
both  Mr.  Buckle  and  Mr.  Mill  are  dead,  there  is  no  longer  any  occasion  to 
suppress  it. 

6  This  letter  ivas  written,  but  I  have  not  seen  it,  and  do  not  know  whether 
it  exists. 


362  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

Ableh,  or  the  Wild  One.  Its  hire  was  £60  a  month,  a 
largish  sum  then,  but  nothing  to  what  is  now  given. 
Buckle  ordered  it  to  proceed  to  Boulak  as  soon  as  it  could 
be  got  ready,  for  the  railway  had  been  repaired  sooner 
than  was  expected,  and  it  would  have  been  useless  to  daw- 
dle away  time  on  a  canal.  The  exposure  to  the  sun,  how- 
ever, brought  on  so  sharp  a  choleraic  attack  that  he  had 
to  keep  his  bed  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  and  only  set 
out  for  Cairo  on  the  next.  But  when  he  got  to  Cairo  he 
was  so  little  the  worse  for  it  that,  despite  his  six  hours? 
railway  journey,  he  spent  the  evening  in  "  exploring " 
that  city  with  some  friends  he  had  made  on  board  the 
Ceylon. 

The  party  put  up  at  the  Hotel  d' Orient,  which  at  that 
time  had  the  garden  of  the  Esbeekeey eh  almost  under  its 
windows.  Cairo  has  changed  wofully  for  the  worse  since 
then.  The  best  half  of  this  garden  has  been  built  over ; 
and  what  remains  is  laid  out  in  French  style,  with  grass 
that  won't  grow,  and  broken  and  dirty  little  gas-lamps 
round  its  little  ponds.  Then  it  was  open  to  every  one, 
and,  though  nothing  in  comparison  with  a  good  European 
garden,  it  was  beautiful  in  dusty  Cairo,  with  its  luxuriant 
native  vegetation.  The  dahabeeyeh  was  not  expected  to 
arrive  for  a  week,  and  in  the  mean  while  Buckle's  time 
was  fully  occupied  in  seeing  Cairo.  His  ordinary  practice 
was  to  rise  at  six,  read  Sharpe's  "  Egypt,"  or  "  Murray," 
or  some  other  book  on  the  country ;  walk  fifteen  minutes, 
and  breakfast  at  nine.  He  then  went  about  sight-seeing 
or  paying  visits ;  took  a  light  lunch  of  bread  and  fruit 
about  one  o'clock,  and  dined  at  six ;  played  a  game  of 
backgammon  with  one  of  the  boys,  but  not  immediately 


OAIEO.  363 

after  dinner,  and  always  for  some  stake,  generally  a  half- 
penny, because  he  considered  that  even  a  small  stake  pre- 
vented reckless  play ;  read  again  from  eight  to  ten,  and 
then  went  to  bed  ;  or  sometimes  retired  a  little  earlier,  lit 
a  cigar,  and  read  as  long  as  it  lasted. 

So  well  and  joyous  did  he  feel  here  that  he  made  up 
his  mind  to  continue  his  journey  to  Palestine,  and  with 
this  object  bought  Kobinson's  "Biblical  Eesearches " ; 
and  an  Arabic  grammar  and  dictionary,  for  the  purpose  of 
studying  Arabic.  He  soon  found,  however,  that  his  brain 
was  not  yet  strong  enough  to  allow  him  to  study  so  diffi- 
cult a  language,  and  had  to  put  it  aside. 

From  Cairo  he  writes  as  follows,  15th  November, 
1861: 

"  We  hope  to  leave  here  for  Thebes  to-morrow,  pro- 
vided the  boat  can  be  provisioned  by  then.  It  is  a  first- 
rate  boat ;  and,  as  we  shall  be  in  it  three  months,  I  am 
doing  what  I  know  you  would  do  if  you  were  here,  spar- 
ing no  expense  in  laying  in  every  comfort  that  can  insure 
health.  I  feel  the  responsibility  of  your  dear  children, 
perhaps  more  than  I  expected,  but  I  am  not  anxious  ;  for 
I  am  conscious  of  going  to  the  full  extent  of  my  duty, 
and  neglecting  nothing;  and  when  a  man  does  this,  he 
must  leave  the  unknown  and  invisible  future  to  take  care 
of  itself.  ...  If  the  boys  improve  still  further  in  health, 
and  if  I  find  that  they  are  reaping  real  intellectual  bene- 
fit, I  propose  taking  them  in  February  to  Jerusalem,  and 
thence  making  excursions  in  Palestine  —  explaining  to 
them  at  the  same  time  the  essential  points  in  Jewish  his- 
tory, and  connecting  it  with  the  history  of  Egypt.  The 
few  books  which  I  require  can  be  got  here;  all  except 


364  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

one,  viz.,.-.'  Stanley's  Sinai  and  Palestine.'  This  you  (all 
my  letters  are  to  you  and  your  husband  jointly)  will  please 
to  get,  and  send  to  Briggs,  at  Cairo;  also  some  letter 
stamps,  and  a  letter  of  credit  on  Jerusalem,  or  some  place 
as  near  Jerusalem  as  possible.  I  shall  write  to  England 
by  this  mail  for  more  money  for  myself,  and  therefore  I 
shall  only  use  your  letter  of  credit  to  about  the  extent 
of  your  boys'  expenses.  Furthermore,  I  shall  want  a  let- 
ter of  credit  on  Constantinople,  as  I  propose  sailing  for 
that  city  direct  from  Palestine,  and  then  ascending  the 
Danube  to  Vienna  (now  a  very  easy  journey),  and  meeting 
you  all  there  in  May  or  June.  To  make  sure,  it  may  be 
advisable  to  send,  by  separate  mails,  duplicate  letters  of 
credit  on  Jerusalem  and  Constantinople.  I  could  draw  all 
the  money  here,  but  there  is  the  chance  of  robbery  in  the 
desert.  There  is  NO  FEAR  OF  VIOLENCE,  for  I  shall  have 
the  best  escort  that  monev  can  procure.  My  maxim  is 
economy,  not  parsimony ;  and,  though  I  never  throw  away 
money,  I  never  spare  it  on  emergencies.  If  in  the  spring 
there  are  any  disturbances  in  Arabia  or  Syria,  be  you  well 
assured  that  I  shall  not  set  forth  there.  I  find  that  my 
reputation  has  preceded  me  here ;  and  as  I  know,  conse- 
quently, some  influential  persons,  and  among  them  a  pasha 
and  a  bey,  I  shall  have  the  best  information  as  to  what  is 
going  on  in  the  countries  through  which  we  are  to  pass. 

"  I  am  better  than  I  have  been  for  years,  and  feel  full 
of  life  and  thought.  How  this  country  makes  me  speculate ! 
I  am  up  at  six  o'clock  every  morning,  and  yet  there  seems 
no  day — so  much  is  there  to  see  and  think  of.  I  try  to 
pour  some  of  my  overflowings  into  the  little  chaps ;  time 
will  show  if  I  succeed,  but  I  think  I  shall  do  something 


UP  THE  NILE.     ,  365 

' 


toward  making  them  more  competent 
than  they  would  otherwise  be. 

"  And  now,  my  dear  Mrs.  Huth,  do  you  seriously  ex- 
pect that  I  am  going  to  answer  your  questions  of  casuistry 
about  going  to  church,  expressing  free  opinions,  and  fuller 
amusement  —  questions  which  it  would  take  pages  to  an- 
swer. All  I  can  say  is  that  the  true  Utilitarian  philoso- 
phy NEVER  allows  any  one,  for  the  sake  of  present  and 
temporary  benefits,  either  to  break  a  promise  or  tell  a 
falsehood.  Such  things  degrade  the  mind,  and  are  there- 
fore evil  in  themselves.  But,  if  you  made  a  promise  to 
your  child,  and  then  found  that  keeping  this  promise 
would  ruin  the  health  of  your  child,  what  sort  of  mother 
would  you  be  if  you  were  to  keep  your  promise  ?  The 
other  point  is  more  difficult  ;  but  7  would  not  hesitate  to 
tell  a  falsehood  to  save  the  life  of  any  one  dear  to  me  — 
though  I  know  that  many  competent  judges  differ  as  to 
this  ;  and  in  the  present  state  of  knowledge  the  problem 
is  perhaps  incapable  of  scientific  treatment  :  it  is,  therefore, 
in  such  cases,  for  each  to  act  according  to  his  own  lights." 

The  boat  did  not  arrive  till  Tuesday,  20th  November, 
when  Ayrton  Bey,  a  friend  of  Buckle's,  who  had  also 
once  occupied  the  boat,  called  to  tell  him  that  it  was  at 
Shoubra.  Thither  Buckle  and  the  boys  walked,  and  had 
their  first  sail  up  to  Boulak.  The  next  day  they  took  up 
their  abode  on  board  ;  but  delay  in  provisioning  and  then 
contrary  winds  prevented  a  start  before  Sunday,  25th  ;  and 
altogether  the  journey  up  to  Thebes  was  not  a  very  rapid 
one. 

But  for  all  that  the  days  passed  quickly  enough.  The 
hours  kept  were  much  the  same  as  at  Cairo.  Buckle  took 


366  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

care  to  have  his  daily  walk  before  breakfast,  and  generally 
managed  to  get  another  walk  of  about  an  hour  in  the  course 
of  the  day.  Sometimes  he  read  in  the  forenoon,  sometimes 
he  was  engaged  in  ticketing  and  cataloguing  antiquities, 
which  he  now  began  to  collect,  and  in  which  he  took  a 
great  interest.  The  afternoon  was  spent  in  games  of  back- 
gammon, in  smoking,  and  reading,  or  in  teaching  the  boys 
ecarte  and  draughts ;  but  he  always  expected  them  to  read 
the  greater  part  of  the  morning ;  and  he  taught  them  to 
make  maps  of  Egypt  and  Palestine.  During  the  walks  he 
questioned  them  on  what  they  had  read,  told  them  stories, 
and  taught  them  elementary  physiology,  explaining  the 
human  anatomy,  and  even  making  them  remember  its  bar- 
barous nomenclature,  knowing  well  that  a  knowledge  of 
anatomy  without  this  would  be  like  a  knowledge  of  geog- 
raphy without  the  names,  but  always  taking  especial  care 
that  these  should  not  be  merely  names  to  them,  but  repre- 
sent real  ideas.  If  there  was  any  rule  as  regards  their 
health  which  he  particularly  wished  to  impress  upon  them, 
he  told  them  anecdotes  of  cases  in  which  they  had  been 
disregarded,  with  all  the  dreadful  consequences ;  and  such 
anecdotes  were  indelibly  fixed  in  their  memory.  He  would 
also  make  them  write  out  lists  of  dates,  such  as  the  Con- 
quest of  Egypt  by  Cambyses,  by  Alexander,  and  Amrou ; 
the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  Nebuchadnezzar  ;  the  founda- 
tion of  Samaria ;  the  Conquest,  by  Titus,  etc.,  etc.,  and 
carry  these  lists  about  with  them,  so  as  easily  to  fix  them 
in  their  memory ;  while,  to  see  that  they  did  so,  he  would 
question  them  while  on  their  walks.  As  before,  however, 
he  never  forced  the  boys  to  read ;  he  only  made  them  un- 
derstand that  he  was  pleased  if  they  did,  and  hurt  if  they 


UP  THE  NILE.  367 


did  not ;  and,  as  a  further  and  perhaps  necessary  precaution, 
where  the  choice  lies  between  Robinson's  dry  researches 
and  Shakespeare,  he  removed  the  latter. 

Buckle's  own  account  of  his  system  of  education  is  given 
in  the  following  letter : 

"  14th  December,  1861. 

"  The  journey  up  the  Nile,  though  slow,  has  not  been 
dull,  as  we  have  plenty  of  occupation ;  and  the  boys,  I  am 
truly  pleased  to  say,  are  most  anxious  to  instruct  themselves, 
and  without  any  pressure  on  my  part  they  read  quite  as 
much  as  I  wish.  Lest  the  long  confinement  should  be  in- 
jurious, I  stop  the  boat  twice  every  day,  and  we  walk  with 
an  escort  on  shore.  Then,  and  in  the  evening,  I  talk  to 
them  about  what  they  have  seen  and  read,  and,  having  en- 
couraged them  to  state  their  opinions,  I  give  them  mine, 
and  explain  how  it  is  that  we  differ.  They  have  accumu- 
lated a  great  number  of  historical  and  geographical  facts. 
But  that  is  not  my  chief  object ;  what  I  aim  at  is,  to  train 
theni  to  consider  everything  from  the  largest  and  highest 
point  of  view  that  their  years  and  abilities  will  allow.  To 
this  I  make  everything  subordinate,  save  and  except  their 
health.  At  first  they  were  evidently  bewildered  by  the 
multiplicity  of  new  details  which  crowded  on  their  minds ; 
but  gradually  those  details  took  a  regular  and  orderly  form, 
spontaneously  arranging  themselves  under  general  heads. 
To  hasten  this  movement,  without  overworking  their  brains, 
is  the  most  difficult  part  of  my  undertaking.  But  I  will 
venture  to  say  that  if  you  could  now  see  them  you  would 
be  convinced  that  their  health  must  have  been  well  attend- 
ed to ;  while  if  you  could  talk  to  them,  you  would  be 
equally  well  satisfied  respecting  the  other  part  of  the  ques- 


368  BUCKLE'S  LITE  AND  WKITINGS. 

tion.  Perhaps  this  sounds  too  much  like  praising  myself ; 
but  your  children  are  so  far  from  you  that  I  had  rather  be 
deemed  vainglorious  than  conceal  facts  concerning  them 
which  it  will  please  you  to  hear.  .  .  . 

"Besides  the  general  history  and  geography  of  the 
East,  I  am  teaching  the  boys  by  conversation  (for  I  have 
no  books  on  the  subject)  the  elements  of  physiology,  and 
explaining  to  them  the  general  laws  which  connect  animals 
with  plants.  Two  or  three  days  ago  I  first  began  to  pro- 
ceed further,  and  opened  up  the  relations  which  the  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  kingdoms  bear  to  the  mineral  world. 

was  never  weary  of  listening  and  asking  questions. 

.  .  .  His  eyes  quite  sparkled,  and  beamed  with  light,  as 
he  traversed  (though,  of  course,  very  indistinctly)  the  field 
of  thought. 

"  You  have,  I  suppose,  received  a  letter  which  I  wrote 
from  Cairo.  ...  If  so,  I  must  trouble  you  to  send  to  the 
same  address  another  parcel,  containing  Josephus's  f  His- 
tory of  the  Jewish  War ' ;  his  c  Own  Life,'  and  his  <  Anti- 
quities of  the  Jews.'  As  these  are  for  the  boys,  they  must 
all  be  in  English.  The  translation  of  the  c  Jewish  "War  ' 
by  Traill  is  better  than  the  old  one  by  Whist  on.  I  also 
want  Jahn's  '  Hebrew  Commonwealth,'  and  a  volume  on 
the  history,  etc.,  of  Palestine,  published  in  the  Edinburgh 
Cabinet  Library ;  likewise  a  very  small  volume  on  human 
physiology,  forming  part  of  Chambers's  Educational  Course. 
I  am  not  quite  certain  as  to  the  title,  but  you  can  hardly 
mistake  it,  as  the  subject  is  the  physiology  of  man,  and  it 
is  a  thin  one-and-sixpenny  or  two-shilling  book,  with  cuts. 
Then,  some  more  thin  writing  paper,  and  a  small  but  good 
revolver,  with  a  leather  belt  in  which  it  can  be  worn — such 


EDUCATION.  369 

belts  are  made  expressly.  The  revolver  should  be  as  light 
as  is  consistent  with  its  being  an  effective  weapon.  But 
you  know  that  I  am  not  expert  with  fire-arms ;  it  must 
not,  therefore,  have  any  needless  complications,  .  .  . 

"  The  boys'  Bible  has  no  Apocrypha ;  and  I  want  to 
explain  to  them  the  character  of  that  most  remarkable 
Maccabsean  revolution  which  broke  out  two  centuries  be- 
fore Christ.  If,  therefore,  you  can  buy  the  Apocrypha 
separate,  and  in  a  portable  form,  do  so ;  but  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  send  out  another  whole  Bible,  as  my  memory 
will  enable  me  to  explain  the  main  points  without  it. 

"  We  live  in  great  comfort,  and  indeed  luxury :  an 
iron  boat,  with  good  bedrooms,  and  a  saloon  that  could 
dine  eight  persons ;  and  we  sail  quicker  than  any  boat  on 
the  Nile.  I  have  engaged  the  cook  the  Rothschilds  had 
when  they  were  in  Egypt.  He  is  really  a  first-rate  cook,, 
and  makes,  I  think,  the  best  bread  I  ever  tasted.  I  let  the 
boys  live  generously ;  but  I  carefully  watch  the  effect  of 
their  food,  and  occasionally  put  them  on  a  spare  diet,,  to 
avoid  medicine.  .  .  .  They  get  up  before  seven,  and  go 
to  bed  at  8.10.  The  latter  part  of  the  arrangement  they 
don't  always  approve  of,  but  they  never  resist  me  when 
they  see  I  am  in  earnest;  and  I  ,am  peremptory  on  this 
point;  believing  that  early  sleep  is  of  supreme  importance 
to  them,  living  as  they  do  amid  such  exciting  scenes,  and 
with  their  attention  continually  on  the  stretch.  .  .  ." 

Perhaps  the  following  two  letters  from  the  two  boys, 
written  for  the  same  post  as  the  above,  will  show  more 
clearly  than  anything  the  nature  of  this  education : 

"  We  have  been  on  the  Mle  about  three  weeks,  and 
expect  to  be  at  Thebes  in  a  few  days.  We  have  not  seen 

24 


370  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITHSTGS. 

any  temples  or  tombs  yet,  except  the  tombs  at  Siout,  which 
is  the  capital  of  Upper  Egypt.  The  tombs  there  are  not 
nearly  as  good  as  we  shall  see  when  we  are  coming  back. 
But  I  have  picked  up  a  piece  of  mummy  cloth ;  and  I 
have  bought  a  little  idol  of  our  donkey-man,  which  I  gave 
twenty  paras  for  (which  is  equal  to  three  farthings).  Mr. 
B.  says  that  it  is  sure  to  be  real,  because  it  does  not  pay  to 
forge  such  cheap  things.  You  can  not  think  how  jolly  it  is. 
Mr.  B.  lets  us  do  what  we  like ;  and  the  only  lessons  we  do 
as  yet  is  reading.  .  .  .  We  have  seen  no  crocodiles  yet,  but 
Hassan  says  that  we  shall  see  plenty  by-and-by.  I  mean  to 
buy  a  small  one,  and  send  it  home  to  be  stuffed,  unless  I  get 
a  letter  to  the  contrary  when  we  get  back  to  Cairo.  I  have 
made  a  little  map  of  Egypt,  and  I  mean  to  mark  the  places 
that  we  have  been  to,  and  then  send  it  to  you  when  we  get 
back  to  Cairo.  This  letter  will  be  posted  at  Thebes,  and 
we  have  told  Briggs  to  forward  your  letter  there.  The 
Egyptian  post  goes  as  far  as  Assouan,  which  is  at  the  first 
cataract.  Mr.  B.  thinks  of  going  to  Nubia,  as  far  as  the 
second  cataract ;  but  it  depends  on  the  size  of  the  other 
boat  which  we  shall  have  to  hire  at  the  first  cataract.  In 
your  next  letter  tell  me  if  you  would  like  a  mummied  cat. 
I  am  not  quite  sure  whether  I  shall  be  able  to  get  it,  but  I 
think  I  can.  Ask  Mr.  C.  if  he  would  like  one  too ;  as  I 
am  afraid  there  is  no  chance  of  getting  any  models ;  but 
I  shall  try  and  get  a  photograph  of  the  Pyramids.  The 
wind  has  just  got  up,  and  we  are  sailing  fast;  if  it  keeps 
so  we  may  get  to  Thebes  to-morrow ;  but  we  are  only 
going  to  post  letters  there,  and  then  go  on,  for  we  do  not 
mean  to  see  any  remains  till  we  come  back.  We  have  got 
about  the  best  boat  on  the  Nile,  and  the  best  cook,  and  a 


EDUCATION.  371 

very  good  dragoman,  who  was  a  long  time  with  Colonel 
Vyse,  who  explored  the  Pyramids,  and  discovered  some 
chambers  in  them.  I  have  read  Sharpe's  History  of 
Egypt,'  and  Martineau  and  Russell's  *  Egypt,'  and  He- 
rodotus, and  now  I  am  reading  the  c  History  of  the  Jews.' 
I  shall  not  tell  you  anything  about  Mr.  B.'s  plans  for  Syria 
and  Palestine  and  Mount  Sinai,  as  he  will  most  likely  tell 
you  more  about  it  than  I  could ;  but  won't  it  be  jolly  to 
go  to  all  these  places !  "We  are  all  jolly,  and  Bucky  is  a 
brick. 

"  Please  answer  about  the  crocodile  and  all  that,  or 

else  I  shall  not  know  what  to  do.  ...  Tell  that 

Mr.  B.  says  there  is  no  fear  of  the  Arabs  stealing  us,  be- 
cause it  would  not  be  worth  their  while ;  but  he  is  afraid 
they  will  steal  him,  because  he  is  such  a  nice  little  fellow." 

The  second  letter  is  as  follows : 

"...  I  have  finished  Sharpe's  'History  of  Egypt' 
and  Milman's  c History  of  the  Jews';  and  now  I  am  go- 
ing to  begin  the  Bible,  and  read  all  about  the  Jews  in 
there.  "We  have  been  talking  to  Mr.  B.  about  physiology, 
and  he  says,  when  we  have  finished  reading  about  Egypt 
and  Palestine,  he  will  write  for  a  book  about  it.  We  have 
got  a  very  good  boat ;  it  is  built  of  iron,  and  has  beaten 
three  boats  already  that  started  two  days  before  us.  I 
have  made  a  map  of  Egypt  and  a  map  of  Asia  Minor. 
To-day  I  saw  rafts  of  pottery  coming  from  Kenneh.  "We 
have  got  a  very  good  cook.  He  can  make  plum-pudding, 
and  he  can  make  Irish  stew  as  well  as  Mr.  Buckle's  cook. 
Here  we  always  have  marmalade  and  curry  for  breakfast. 
The  time  here  is  about  six  hours  faster  than  in  England, 
because  we  are  so  much  farther  east.  It  is  about  as  hot 


372  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

here  as  it  was  last  summer  in  England.  Mr.  Buckle  has 
been  explaining  to  us  the  relation  of  minerals  and  plants 
and  animals  to  each  other,  and  the  way  in  which  animals 
get  minerals  through  plants;  and  that  while  animals  are 
poisoning  the  air,  plants  are  purifying  it.  ...  I  have 
finished  reading  Herodotus,  Martineau,  and  KusselPs 
'  Egypt.'  When  wre  came  to  Alexandria,  Mr.  Buckle 
allowed  us  two  shillings  a  week." 

Thus  was  the  time  passed  daily  on  the  Kile,  until  six 
o'clock  brought  the  proof  of  the  cook's  skill,  which  we 
have  seen  praised  so  highly  in  his  letter.  After  dinner 
he  sat  with  the  boys  in  semi-darkness  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  or  so,  playing  and  joking  with  them,  till  they  gen- 
erally ended  in  a  violent  romp,  and  now  and  then  a  smash 
of  crockery  or  windows.  A  breakage,  however,  had  to  be 
paid  for.  Buckle  himself  boasted  that  he  had  never  broken 
anything  since  he  was  quite  a  youth,  with  the  exception 
of  one  tumbler,  which  had  slipped  through  his  fingers  on 
a  very  cold  day  j  and  he  gave  the  boys  a  special  allowance 
to  pay  for  their  breakages,  with  the  result  that  such  acci- 
dents were  not  nearly  as  common  as  they  otherwise  would 
have  been,  for  the  boys  had  plenty  of  use  for  their  money. 
They,  too,  took  an  interest  in  antiquities  and  curiosities, 
and. began  to  form  a  collection,  in  which  they  were  much 
assisted  by  Buckle,  and  allowed  to  think  that  the  assistance 
was  reciprocal. 

A  good  wind  brought  the  dahabeeyeh  to  Thebes  on 
the  14th  December,  with  "  all  well  and  in  high  spirits." 
They  immediately  landed,  and,  after  seeing  Luxor,  visited 
Karnak,  "that  wonderful  tenvple,"  as  Buckle  can  not  re- 
sist calling  it  in  his  diary.  The  following  day  Luxor  was 


THEBES.  373 

again  visited,  and  then  he  crossed  the  Nile,  and  saw  the 
Memnones — the  temples  of  the  Memnonium  and  Me- 
deenet  Haboo,  and  finally,  after  dinner,  went^to  Karnak, 
"  and  saw  that  prodigious  ruin  by  moonlight." 

"  One  thing  I  will  say,"  he  afterward  wrote  from  Cairo, 
"  that  everything  which  travelers  relate  of  Egypt  fails  to 
give  an  idea  of  the  real  wonders  of  this  most  interesting 
country.  To  tell  you  that  I  have  seen  a  single  ruin  (the 
temple  of  Karnak  at  Thebes)  which,  when  complete, 
measured  a  mile  and  a  half  in  circumference,  sounds  very 
strange;  but  that  is  nothing  when  compared  with  the 
amazing  grandeur  of  the  colossal  statues,  and  the  pillars 
which  support  the  edifice.  And,  then,  the  minute  finish 
of  the  sculpture  which  covered  the  walls  of  the  Egyptian 
temple  is  as  noticeable  as  their  grandeur." 

And  again  he  writes  to  another  friend : 

"  To  give  you  even  the  faintest  idea  of  what  I  have 
seen  in  this  wonderful  country  is  impossible.  ~No  art  of 
writing  can  depict  it.  If  I  were  to  say  that  the  temple 
of  Karnak  at  Thebes  can  even  now  be  ascertained  to  have 
measured  a  mile  and  a  half  in  circumference,  I  should, 
perhaps,  only  tell  you  what  you  have  read  in  books ;  but  I 
should  despair  if  I  were  obliged  to  tell  you  what  I  felt 
when  I  was  in  the  midst  of  it,  and  contemplated  it  as  a 
living  whole,  while  every  part  was  covered  with  sculptures 
of  exquisite  finish,  except  where  hieroglyphics  crowded  on 
each  other  so  thickly  that  it  would  require  many  volumes 
to  copy  them.  There  stood  their  literature  in  the  midst 
of  the  most  magnificent  temples  ever  raised  by  the  genius 
of  man.  I  went  twice  to  see  it  by  moonlight,  when  the 
vast  masses  of  light  and  shade  rendered  it  absolutely  ap- 


374  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

palling.  But  I  fear  to  write  like  a  guide-book,  and  had 
rather  abstain  from  details  till  we  meet.  One  effect,  how- 
ever, I  must  tell  you  that  my  journey  has  produced  upon 
me.  Perhaps  you  may  remember  how  much  I  always  pre- 
ferred form  to  color ;  but  now,  owing  to  the  magical  effect 
of  this,  the  driest  atmosphere  in  the  world,  I  am  getting 
to  like  color  more  than  form.  The  endless  variety  of  hues 
is  extraordinary.  Owing  to  the  transparency  of  the  air, 
objects  are  seen  (as  nearly  as  I  can  judge)  more  than  twice 
the  distance  they  can  be  seen  in  England  under  the  most 
favorable  circumstances.  Until  my  eye  became  habituated 
to  this,  I  often  over-fatigued  myself  by  believing  that  I 
could  reach  a  certain  point  in  a  certain  time.  The  result 
is  a  wealth  and  exuberance  of  color  which  is  hardly  to  be 
credited,  and  which  I  doubt  if  any  painter  would  dare  to 
represent.  ...  If  you  were  here,  and  felt  as  I  do  what  it 
is  to  have  the  brain  every  day  over-excited — be  constantly 
drunk  with  pleasure — you  would  easily  understand  how 
impossible  much  letter- writing  becomes,  and  how  impatient 
one  grows  of  fixing  upon  paper  '  thoughts  which  burn.' 
But,  as  you  know  of  old,  if  my  friends  were  to  measure 
my  friendship  by  the  length  of  my  letters,  they  would  do 
me  great  injustice." 

Color  was,  however,  his  oldest  love,  to  which  he  now 
returned,  and  with  even  more  ardor  and  devotion  after 
seeing  Petra,  with  its  perpendicular  walls  of  living  rock, 
honeycombed  with  temples,  dwellings,  and  tombs,  and 
streaked  with  colors  so  bright,  so  various,  and  yet  in  such 
perfect  harmony  that  no  one  who  has  not  actually  seen  it 
can  form  any  idea  of  the  general  effect — an  effect  which 
is  further  heightened  by  the  tumbled  masses  of  rock  and 


TALK  WITH  MR.  LONGMORE.  375 

the  bushes  and  trees  which  hang  on  every  ledge  and 
spring  from  every  fissure. 

The  view  over  the  Libyan  plain  of  Thebe$  is  perhaps 
the  most  beautiful,  and  certainly  the  most  characteristic, 
in  Egypt.  For  beyond  fields  of  lupins  and  waving  corn 
still  sit  the  two  colossi,  as  they  have  sat  for  three  thousand 
years — now,  alas !  sadly  battered,  but  yet  majestic  in  their 
solitary  grandeur.  A  little  to  the  right  and  behind  is  the 
Memnonium,  with  its  background  of  the  Libyan  hills, 
which  catch  the  parting  rays  of  the  sun  on  their  white  and 
broken  cliffs,  and  the  slope  of  the  Assaseef,  riddled  with 
gaping  tombs.  Still  further  on  the  right  are  the  remains 
of  the  temple  of  El  Goorneh,  and  a  collection  of  mud 
huts  of  the  same  name  ;  while  on  the  extreme  left  are  the 
huge  mounds  and  mighty  ruins  of  the  temple  of  Medeenet 
Haboo. 

A  final  look  at  the  latter  temple,  and  at  certain  tombs 
of  the  Assaseef  and  its  neighborhood ;  and  then,  at  five 
o'clock  on  the  16th,  sail  was  made  for  Assuan,  which  the 
Ableh  reached  on  the  22d. 

As  is  usual,  however,  a  halt  had  been  made  at  Esneh, 
to  allow  the  crew  to  bake  their  bread ;  and  Buckle  occu- 
pied his  spare  time  in  visiting  the  shamefully  neglected 
temple  of  this  place.  Here  were  two  other  boats — the 
Fortunata,  on  board  of  which  was  Mr.  Longmore,  who  has 
since  written  an  interesting  account  of  his  meetings  with 
1  Buckle  during  the  journey;  and  the  Canopus,  occupied 
by  two  clergymen.  On  board  the  latter,  Mr.  Longmore 
made  Buckle's  acquaintance,  and  thus  records  the  conver- 
sation :  "  Though  he  smoked  continuously  during  our 
interview,  he  was  by  no  means  solely  occupied  with  that 


376  BUCKLE'S  LIFE-  AND  WETTINGS. 

recreation,  for  he  talked  nearly  as  continuously.  A  good 
deal  of  the  time  during  which  we  were  on  board  the  Ca- 
nopus  together,  he  spent  in  maintaining  that  a  constitu- 
tional country  like  England  was  never  so  well  governed  as 
when  the  sovereign  was  either  a  debauche  or  an  imbecile. 
In  proof  of  this  rather  paradoxical  position,  }ie  instanced 
the  reign  of  Henry  the  Third ;  and  Charles  the  Second,  to 
which  we  owe  our  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  one  he  still 
more  admired,  de  non  Corriburendo  Hereticos  /  8  and  those 
of  George  the  Second  and  George  the  Third — as  the 
reigns  in  which  we  had  made  the  greatest  progress.  With 
the  Pharaohs  and  Ptolemies  of  Egypt,  and  other  absolute 
monarchs,  it  was  different,  for  they,  if  energetic  men, 
could  do  what  they  liked  with  the  resources  they  gov- 
erned, and  thus  leave  to  posterity  such  wonderful  monu- 
ments of  their  magnificence  as  we  had  recently  been 
admiring  on  the  banks  of  the  JSTile.7  "Subsequently, 
during  the  same  visit  to  the  Canopus,"  continues  Mr. 

*  This  proposition  is  sketched  out  in  that  part  of  the  Introduction  to  the 
"  History  of  Civilization  "  which  refers  to  the  attempt  of  the  Spanish  govern- 
ments to  improve  the  people.  On  the  Act  de  non  Comburendo  Hereticos  he 
has  the  following :  "  By  the  old  law  of  England  the  bishops  were  not  al- 
lowed the  luxury  of  burning  heretics,  except  by  the  authority  of  a  writ 
issued  by  the  king  in  council.  But  Henry  the  Fourth  procured  a  law  order- 
ing that  all  heretics  were  to  be  judged  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  and,  if 
found  guilty,  to  be  burnt  without  any  reference  to  the  consent,  or  even  to 
the  knowledge,  of  the  crown."-Pp.  120,  121,  vol.  L,  "Buckle's  Posthumous 
and  Miscellaneous  Writings  ";  fragment  on  "  Bishops,"  under  the  "Reign 
of  Elizabeth." 

7  He  could  not,  however,  have  meant  that  under  capable  despots  there  is 
as  much  progress  as  under  imbecile  monarchs  in  free  constitutions.  What 
he  probably  said  was,  that  these  monuments  were  raised  because  the  govern- 
ment was  despotic  in  its  strictest  sense,  which  implies  misery  to  the  people. 
And,  secondly,  that  under  a  despotic  government  the  country  is  wholly  de- 
pendent on  the  capability  of  its  ruler— progressing  under  a  great  man,  and 
going  back  again  under  a  reckless  or  foolish  one. 


TALK  WITH  MR.  LONGMORE.  377 

Longmore,  "  some  reference  being  made  to  modern  spir- 
itualism, Mr.  Buckle  graphically  narrated  his  experiences 
during  a  seance  at  which  he  had  been  present*  shortly  be- 
fore leaving  London.  This  seance  took  place  in  the  house, 
he  said,  of  a  Cabinet  Minister,  who,  he  was  quite  satisfied, 
would  not  have  lent  himself  to  any  collusive  trickery  to 
facilitate  the  proceedings  of  the  mediums.  The  chief  of 
these  was  Mr.  Home ;  and  various  marvelous  phenomena 
were  produced,  more  particularly  the  floating  of  a  large 
circular  drawing-room  table  in  mid-air.  These  manifesta- 
tions Mr.  Buckle  was  unable  to  explain  on  any  known 
physical  laws.  *  But,'  he  added,  '  while  I  can  not  admit 
there  is  anything  supernatural  about  them,  I  think  it  quite 
possible  there  may  be  a  development  of  some  new  force 
well  worthy  of  scientific  investigation.'  He  afterward 
mentioned  that  Mr.  Home  called  on  him  shortly  after  the 
seance,  and  told  him  that  he  was  anxious  that  he,  a  man 
well  known  in  the  literary  world,  and  recognized  as  no 
granter  of  propositions  he  had  not  duly  examined  for  him- 
self, would  take  up  the  subject  of  spiritualism,  and  after 
sufficiently  testing  the  reality  of  its  phenomena — in  doing 
which  Mr.  Home  offered  every  assistance  in  his  power — 
announce  to  the  world  to  what  conclusion  he  had  come. 
Mr.  Home  volunteered  that,  whenever  Mr.  Buckle  wished 
it,  he  would  readily  come  to  his  house,  and  perform  his 
experiments  there,  so  that  there  might  be  no  suspicion  of 
apparatus  or  collusion  being  employed  to  deceive  him.  In 
conclusion,  Mr.  Buckle  told  us  he  was  so  pleased  with  Mr. 
Home  that  he  was  quite  willing  to  agree  to  his  proposal ; 
but  that,  the  second  volume  of  his  book  being  then  nearly 
ready  for  press,  his  time  had  been  so  occupied  with  it  that 


378  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

he  was  quite  unable  to  take  the  subject  of  spiritualism  up 
before  his  health  broke  down,  and  he  was  compelled  to 
leave  England.  But  he  was  resolved  to  investigate  it  on 
his  return  home — a  return  which,  alas  !  never  took  place."  ' 
At  Assouan  Mr.  Buckle  again  met  Mr.  Longmore; 
and,  since  with  returning  strength  his  love  of  conversa- 
tion was  also  returning,  seeking  a  cultivated  companion 
to  whom  he  could  talk  during  his  projected  tour  in  Pales- 
tine, he  invited  him  to  accompany  him  during  that  jour- 
ney ;  but  Mr.  Longmore  was  unfortunately  obliged  "  re- 
luctantly to  decline."9  Here  arrangements  were  made 
for  hiring  another  boat ;  for,  though  all  but  the  very  big- 
gest dahabeeyehs  can  pass  the  cataract,  yet,  as  El  Ableh 
was  built  of  iron,  any  damage  she  might  receive  in  the 
passage  could  not  have  been  repaired  in  so  primitive  a 
place.  To  a  wooden  boat  an  occasional  bump  against  a 
rock  does  no  harm,  and  the  only  danger  that  is  run  is  the 
chance  that  the  boat  may  escape  down  the  rapid — a  dan- 
ger which  is  effectually  guarded  against  by  ropes  made 
fast  to  rocks ;  the  boat  is  then  hauled  up  a  little  farther 
and  again  made  fast,  while  the  first  ropes  are  loosed,  and 
the  process  repeated.10 

8  From  Mr.  J.  A.  Longmore's  account  in  the  "Athenaeum,"  p.  115,  No. 
2361,  for  25th  January,  1873. 

9  "Athenaeum,"  p.  115,  25th  January,  1873. 

10  Mr.  Glennie  says  :  "  Still  grander,  however  [than  ascending],  was  the 
shooting  of  this  first  cataract,  on  our  descending  the  Nile  three  weeks  after- 
ward.    Some  travelers  do  not  risk  it ;  nor,  I  believe,  did  Mr.  Buckle  ;  but  I 
found  it  one  of  the  most  glorious  sensations  I  ever  experienced." — "  Pilgrim 
Memories,"  p.  21.    A  truly  heroic  feat !  which  strangely  recalls  to  us  the 
anecdote  told  to  Pepys  of  the  passage  of  a  Frenchman  through  London 
Bridge :  "  Where,  when  he  saw  the  great  fall,  he  began  to  cross  himself  and 
say  his  prayers  in  the  greatest  fear  in  the  world,  and,  soon  as  he  was  over, 
he  swore,  *  Morbleu  !  c'est  le  plus  grand  plaisir  du  monde.'  "— "  Pepys's  Di- 
ary," 8th  August,  1662. 


NUBIA.  3Y9 

The  boat  engaged  for  the  Nubian  trip  was  little  better 
than  a  common  merchantman,  the  wild  prototype  of  the 
civilized  dahabeeyeh.  Many  windows  were  broken  ;  and 
though  Buckle  had  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Assouan  from  his  Cairene  friends,  all  his  power 
was  unable  to  produce  a  square  inch  of  glass,  and  they 
had  therefore  to  be  patched  up  with  paper.  Two  days 
were  occupied  in  transferring  stores,  during  which  Buckle 
visited  the  Cataracts,  the  island  of  Elephanta,  and  "  the 
beautiful  island  of  Philse,"  and  also  bought  a  great  many 
antiquities. 

He  started  on  the  24th  December,  came  back  on  the 
8th  January,  and  the  next  day  the  party  rode  back  to  the 
dahabeeyeh,  which  seemed  quite  a  palace  after  the  wretched 
boat  they  had  just  left.  "  We  have  all  been,  and  are  re- 
markably well,"  he  writes.  "The  journey  into  Nubia, 
notwithstanding  its  many  discomforts,  was  in  the  highest 
degree  curious  and  instructive  ;  and,  as  I  took  extra  pre- 
cautions as  regards  diet  and  health,  it  did  us  no  harm.  .  .  . 
The  heat  in  Nubia  was  intense.  On  Christmas  Day,  at 
half-past  eight  in  the  evening,  it  was  in  my  cabin  81° 
Fahrenheit,  though  the  sun  had  been  excluded  all  day. 
Not  one  Egyptian  traveler  in  ten  enters  Nubia;  but,  as 
you  see,  I  felt  confident  in  bringing  us  all  well  out  of 
it ;  and  now  that  we  have  been  there,  I  would  not  have 
missed  it  for  five  hundred  pounds.  I  feel  very  joyous, 
and  altogether  full  of  pugnacity,  so  that  I  wish  some 
one  would  attack  me — I  mean,  attack  me  speculatively. 
I  have  no  desire  for  a  practical  combat."  And  to  his 
aunt  he  writes  from  Cairo :  "  The  Nubian  part  of  the 
journey  I  had  to  perform  under  circumstances  of  con- 


380  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

siderable  discomfort  in  a  common  trading  boat ;  but  ev- 
ery step  was  to  me  so  full  of  interest  that  I  was  amply 
repaid." 

Everything  was  ready  for  the  departure,  but  the  wind 
blew  strongly  from  the  north,  and  forced  a  delay.  Here 
a  Mr.  Glennie,  who  was  in  a  dahabeeyeh  on  its  way  up, 
took  the  opportunity  of  having  the  news  of  the  Prince 
Consort's  death  to  communicate,  to  call  on  Buckle  and  in- 
troduce himself.  The  conversation  on  that  occasion  was, 
as  always  with  Buckle,  extremely  animated,  and,  as  Mr. 
Glennie  says,  was  chiefly  on  spirit-rapping,  as  was  the 
conversation  with  Mr.  Longmore  at  Esneh.  There  is, 
however,  this  difference  between  the  two  conversations  as 
recorded  by  Mr.  Longmore  and  Mr.  Glennie — that,  while 
at  Esneh  Buckle  said  that  he  was  unable  to  explain  the 
phenomena  on  any  known  physical  laws,  and  added, 
"While  I  can  not  admit  there  is  anything  supernatural 
about  them,  I  think  it  quite  possible  there  may  be  a  devel- 
opment of  some  new  force  well  worthy  of  scientific  in- 
vestigation," "  at  Assouan  he  is  declared  to  have  believed 
they  were  supernatural,  and  performed  by  spirits,  though 
the  movements  of  table  and  chairs  might  not  be ;  and  to 
have  listened  with  respectful  attention  and  admiration  to 
the  explanation,  that  u  just  as  the  molecular  motion  of  one 
organ  of  an  animal  body  varyingly  affects,  and  is  affected, 
by  the  dynamic  equilibrium  of  every  other  organ,  so 
may  individual  bodies,  conceived  as  systems  of  motion, 
not  only  varyingly  affect  and  be  affected  by  each  other, 
through  a  mechanically  conceived  medium,  but  such  in- 
fluence may  be  a  consequence  of  mental  actions  which,  if 

11  "Athenaeum,"  p.  115,  25th  January,  1873. 


LOVE  OF  ANTIQUITIES.  381 


they  have  all  mechanical  equivalents,  would,  through  a 
medium,  be  mechanically  communicable."  12 

Though  Buckle  was  an  admirable  listener,  I  do  not 
think  he  would  have  had  patience  to  listen  to  eight  pages 
of  this.  Be  this  as  it  may,  however,  Buckle,  as  he  pre- 
viously asked  Mr.  Longmore,  now  asked  Mr.  Glennie  to 
join  him  on  his  tour  in  Palestine,  and  accepted,  as  he  al- 
ways was  ready  to  accept,  an  invitation  to  spend  the  even- 
ing on  board  Mr.  Glennie's  boat.  His  diary  of  this  day  has 
the  following  entry :  "  Thursday,  9th  January,  1862.  The 
Nile.  Eoseat6.40.  Breakfast  at  8.  At  [9]  left  the  boat 
we  had  been  in  to  Wady  Half  eh,  and,  riding  to  Assouan, 
embarked  there  in  our  old  boat.  Walked  1  hour.  Dined 
at  6.  Spent  the  evening  in  the  dahabeeyeh  of  a  Mr.  Glen- 
nie, who  called  on  me  this  afternoon.  In  bed  at  10.10, 
and  to  11.40  read  the  Bible." 

On  the  following  morning,  notwithstanding  the  strong 
north  wind,  a  start  was  made.  Buckle  made  but  few  en- 
tries concerning  what  he  saw,  but  he  remarks  at  Edfoo, 
"  Carefully  examined  the  magnificent  temple  there,  which 
is  the  most  complete  and  interesting  in  all  Egypt."  Ever 
since  he  had  left  Thebes  especially  he  had  taken  the  great- 
est interest  in  collecting  antiquities  and  curiosities,  with 
which  he  intended  to  form  a  museum  in  the  stable  belong- 
ing to  his  house.  "  Connecting  these  with  my  reading," 
he  said,  "  I  think  I  shall  make  a  very  interesting  collec- 
tion." Nothing  came  amiss  to  him ;  specimens  from  the 
various  quarries  of  Egypt,  Nubian  and  Arab  dresses,  orna- 
ments, weapons,  and  utensils,  and  as  many  antiquities  as 
he  could  collect — not  confining  himself  to  objects  bearing 

12  Glennie,  "  Pilgrim  Memories,"  pp.  9-17. 


382  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WKITINGS. 

an  art  value,  but  also  buying  ancient  head-rests,  mummy 
linen,  wooden  bolts  and  spoons,  and  mummy  heads,  hands, 
and  arms.  He  loved  to  trace  the  likeness  between  the  an- 
cient and  modern  forms  of  utensils  and  weapons ;  and  took 
so  great  an  interest  in  everything  that  he  often  said,  were 
he  only  rich  enough,  he  would  have  all  the  hieroglyphics 
in  Egypt  copied.  The  following  extracts  from  his  cata- 
logue will  give  some  idea  of  what  he  collected : 18 

"  4.  Part  of  a  mummy-case,  found  in  the  Libyan  sub- 
urb of  Thebes,  22d  January,  1862.  This  is  curious  from 
the  similarity  to  our  mutes  with  their  wands — two  of  the 
Genii. 

"  8.  The  sun  in  the  sacred  boat.  Found  in  the  Libyan 
suburb  of  Thebes,  20th  January,  1862.  Tablets  of  this 
sort  were  worn  suspended  round  the  neck  of  the  Egyptian 
judges,  and  are  the  supposed  origin  of  the  Urim  and  Thum- 
mim  of  the  Hebrews.  See  Martineau's  <  Eastern  Life,' 
1850,  pp.  379,  380. 

"43.  A  piece  of  mummy-covering,  found  in  the  Lib- 
yan suburb  of  Thebes,  20th  January,  1862.  This  is  curi- 
ous, as  showing  how  the  Egyptians  used  to  represent  their 
enemies  on  their  shoes,  for  the  purpose  of  trampling  on 
them.  From  the  long  noses  the  captives  are  probably  in- 
tended for  Jews.14 

13  Compare  Mr.  Glennie's,  "  He  interested  himself  comparatively  but  lit- 
tle in  the  ancient  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt,"  and  "  He  admired  the  art  of  Osi- 
rianism,  though  he  dismissed  its  faith  as  superstition,  and  was  hence,  per- 
haps, more  anxious  to  preserve  its  idols  than  to  understand  its  gods."— Pp. 
49,  54,  "  Pilgrim  Memories,"  where  a  good  deal  more  of  the  like  nonsense 
may  be  found. 

1  Compare  the  story  of  'Ala  ed-Deen  Abu-sh-shamat,  in  which  'Ala  ed- 
Deen  is  ordered  to  be  hung  by  the  Khaleefeh.  But  a  friend  of  his  repaired 
to  the  prison,  and  said  to  the  jailer,  "  Give  us  some  one  who  is  deserving  of 


LOVE  OF  ANTIQUITIES.  383 

"  89.  A  stool  used  by  the  Abyssinian  women  to  lean 
their  elbows  on.  It  was  made  at  Gondar,  and  I  bought  it 
of  an  Abyssinian  at  Assouan,  on  23d  December,  1861.  I 
have  seen  exactly  the  same  stool  represented  in  some  of 
the  Egyptian  tombs. 

"  232.  Model  of  the  stool,  or  wooden  pillow,  used  by  the 
ancient  Egyptians  to  rest  the  head  on.  It  was  found  in  a 
tomb  in  the  Libyan  suburb  of  Thebes,  16th  December,  1861. 
Exactly  the  same  kind  as  is  now  used  by  the  Abyssinians. 

"  226.  A  gilt  figure  of  the  sacred  tau,  or  sign  of  life. 
It  was  presented  to  the  king  when  he  assumed  the  govern- 
ment, and  the  early  Christians  of  Egypt  adopted  it  in  place 
of  the  cross. 

"  4:14:.  Four  small  cymbals,  played  with  the  finger  and 
thumb.  They  were  made  at  Cairo,  where  I  bought  them 
17th  February,  1862.  They  supply  the  place  of  castanets 
in  the  Almeh  dance,  and  were  the  origin  of  the  Spanish 
Castanet.  '  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egyptians,'  1854,  Yol.  I., 
pp.  98,  99. 

"416.  The  sling  commonly  used  in  Egypt  to  drive 
birds  from  the  field.  It  will  hold  several  stones.  Such 
slings  are  often  represented  on  the  old  Egyptian  monu- 
ments. This  was  made  at  Cairo,  where  I  bought  it  on  7th 
February,  1862. 

being  put  to  death."  And  he  gave  him  one  who  was  the  nearest  of  men  in 
resemblance  to  'Ala  ed-Deen,  who  was  hung  in  his  stead.  But  now  the 
Khaleefeh  wanted  to  see  the  body.  "  So  the  Khaleefeh  went  down,  accom- 
panied by  the  Wezeer  Jaaf  ar,  and  proceeded  to  the  gallows ;  and  raising  his 
eyes  he  saw  that  the  body  which  was  hanging  there  was  not  that  of  'Ala  ed- 
Deen."  "  How  do  you  know  ?  "  asked  the  Wezeer ;  and  to  his  reply  that 
this  body  is  long,  and  the  face  is  black,  explains  that  these  are  the  results 
of  hanging.  But  the  Khaleefeh  has  the  body  cut  down,  and  finds  written 
on  the  heels  of  the  corpse  the  names  of  the  two  Sunnee  saints,  whereas  'A1& 
ed-Deen  was  himself  a  Sunnee. 


384  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  456.  The  ordinary  Egyptian  darabooka,  or  drum.  It 
is  used  all  through  Egypt,  and  nearly  every  boat  on  the 
Nile  is  provided  with  one.  Precisely  the  same  instrument 
is  depicted  on  some  of  the  oldest  Egyptian  monuments. 
This  I  bought  at  Cairo,  19th  February,  1862. 

"483.  A  specimen  of  the  ancient  Egyptian  bricks, 
made  of  Nile  mud  and  straw.  I  took  this  on  13th  Janu- 
ary, from  the  walls  of  Eileithyas,  now  called  El  Kab,  situ- 
ated about  fifty  miles  south  of  Thebes. 

"  339.  An  imperfect  figure  of  Atome,  which  I  bought 
at  Cairo  on  llth  February,  1862.  His  head  is  decorated 
with  the  lotus  and  plumes,  and  feather  of  Ammon.  See 
Birch's  '  Gallery  of  Antiquities,'  pp.  21,  22,  where  he  is 
called  Nofre-Athom.  He  is  the  Athmon,  or  Athmoo,  of 
Champollion,  Wilkinson,  and  Rosselini.  According  to 
Mrs.  Lieder,  he  was  the  great  god  of  Heliopolis,  and  was 
the  parent  of  mankind — the  same  as  Adam. 

"344.  A  rare,  and  unusually  perfect  figure,  which  I 
bought  from  the  Odelschachi  collection  at  Cairo,  7th  Feb- 
ruary, 1862.  It  is  like  Fig.  16  in  Birch's  '  Gallery  of 
Antiquities,'  except  that  Isis  and  Nepthys  are  not  sup- 
porting its  sides.  It  represents  Pthah  fin  his  two-fold 
capacity  of  Pthah  and  Socharis.'  In  his  human  type  he 
is  '  standing  upon  two  crocodiles ;  perched  upon  his  shoul- 
ders are  two  hawks,  which  indicate  his  dominion  over  the 
upper  and  lower  hemispheres.'  '  The  goddess  Pasht,  bear- 
ing on  her  head  the  solar  disk,  and  with  long  wings  pen- 
dent from  her  arms,'  considered  as  Merepthah,  or  the 
(goddess)  loving  Pthah,  <  aids  him  behind.' — BIECH,  pp. 
15, 16.  l  Pthah,  or  Ptah,  was  the  principal  deity  and  pro- 
tector of  the  ancient  city  of  Memphis.' — BIECH,  p.  13. 


THE  PYRAMIDS.  385 

'  His  worship  was  of  the  highest  antiquity,  his  name  ap- 
pearing on  monuments  coeval  with  the  Pyramids  them- 
selves.'— BIKCH,  p.  14.  The  fact  of  this  figure  of  Pthah 
wanting  Isis  and  Nepthys  at  the  sides  proves,  says  Mrs. 
Lieder,  its  great  antiquity." 

Six  days  were  spent  at  Thebes,  two  of  which  were  de- 
voted almost  entirely  to  antiquity  hunting,  and  the  others 
to  sight-seeing,  and  such  antiquities  as  chance  offered.  On 
the  20th  January,  El  Ableh  again  started,  but  Buckle 
wrote  nothing  concerning  the  sights  he  saw,  or  deeds  he 
did,  during  his  journey  down  the  Nile  except  the  descrip- 
tion of  Thebes  already  quoted,  and  a  pleasant  account  of 
his  visit  to  Abydos,  concerning  which  he  says :  "  That  I 
have  not  already  been  thrown  is  a  marvel,  seeing  that 
among  other  audacious  feats  I  went  from  the  Nile "  to 
Abydos  on  a  donkey,  with  a  cloth  for  a  saddle,  and  two 
pieces  of  rope  for  stirrups,  and  in  this  wretched  plight  had 
to  ride  between  eight  and  nine  hours."  From  his  diary  it 
appears  that  he  only  rested  three  quarters  of  an  hour  at 
Abydos,  and  returned  "  quite  exhausted." 

The  last  sight  before  reaching  Cairo  was  the  Pyramids. 
Donkeys  were  obtained  from  Cairo — "jolly-spirited  don- 
keys," as  one  of  the  boys  writes,  "  such  as  we  had  not  had 
for  a  long  time  up  the  Nile."  "With  his  usual  care,  Buckle 
had  warned  the  boys  not  to  look  down  on  their  way  up  the 
Pyramids.  He  himself  went  up  also,  but  took  thirty-eight 
minutes,  and,  finding  the  first  passage  too  difficult,  he  did 
not  go  inside. 

At  Boulak  the  boat  was  moored,  but  the  party  were  so 
comfortable  in  it,  and  were  so  much  better  treated  than 

16  Girgeh. 
25 


386  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

they  would  have  been  at  a  hotel,  that  they  continued  to 
live  on  board,  notwithstanding  that  the  cost  was  nearly 
double. 

"  We  have  anchored  one  and  a  half  miles  from  Cairo," 
he  writes,  "as  I  think  living  on  the  ISTile  more  healthy 
than  being  in  a  hotel.  I  shall  therefore  keep  on  the  boat, 
and  all  my  establishment,  including  my  virtuous  and  noble- 
minded  cook,  until  we  start  for  the  desert.  As  to  Cookey, 
please  God !  he  and  I  will  never  part  till  the  Asiatic  part 
of  the  journey  is  ended. 

"  I  am  glad  that  you  thought  of  night-caps ;  but  I  did 
not  write  for  them,  because  I  did  not  wish  to  give  needless 
trouble,  and  excellent  Arab  caps  can  be  bought  here.  I 
had  quite  determined  to  provide  myself  with  them.  In- 
deed, I  never  let  the  boys  be  out  at  all  after  sunset  without 
seeing  that  their  ears,  etc.,  are  covered  with  a  pocket-hand- 
kerchief, which  I  prefer  to  a  scarf,  as  less  heating. 

"  I  make  no  doubt  that  we  can  reach  Vienna  by  June  ; 
but  to  hurry  ourselves  would  spoil  all,  and  be  too  fa- 
tiguing, as  for  about  three  months  all  our  traveling  will 
be  on  camels  and  horseback.  How  long  do  you  think  of 
staying  at  Yienna  ?  and  would  it  matter  if  we  did  not  ar- 
rive there  till  the  first  week  in  July  ?  I  suppose  you  will 
remain  at  least  a  month ;  and  I  shall  be  glad  of  a  little 
rest  to  push  on  the  boys  in  their  knowledge,  so  that  they 
may  return  to  England  with  everything  gathered  up  and 
thoroughly  digested. 

"  Good-by !  keep  up  your  spirits,  and  look  to  the  fu- 
ture with  confidence.  All  will  go  well." 

And  in  a  postscript  he  asks,  "  Have  you  heard  aught 
of  the  Spanish  translation  of  my  History? " 


EEPLY  TO  MR.   HUTH.  387 

In  an  interesting  letter  written  a  few  days  before  to 
the  father  of  the  boys,  he  writes  : 

"  You  ask  me  about  Mill's  '  Political  Economy,'  and 
in  asking  you  hit  one  of  the  very  few  blots  made  by  that 
very  great  man.  Mill  has,  perhaps,  fewer  prejudices  than 
any  living  writer ;  but  he  has  never  quite  got  rid  of  the 
influence  of  the  old  doctrinaire  school.  The  traditions  of 
that  school  were  handed  down  to  him  by  his  father  direct 
from  Jeremy  Bentham ;  and,  though  Bentham  was  one  of 
the  most  eminent  thinkers  this  or  any  other  country  has 
ever  possessed,  he  was  so  unversed  in  the  art  of  life  (as 
distinguished  from  the  science)  that  if  he  had  possessed  the 
requisite  power  he  would  have  inflicted  more  misery  upon 
England  than  has  ever  been  inflicted  on  it  by  any  single 
man.  '  Meddle,  meddle,  meddle,'  is  always  the  cry  of  the 
speculator,  unless  he  be  practitioner  as  well  as  speculator. 
Your  knowledge  of  practical  affairs  enables  you  to  see,  as 
it  were  instinctively,  that  this  is  wrong  ;  though  to  prove 
it  to  be  wrong  needs  a  long,  a  refined,  and  an  intricate 
argument.  When  a  man  can  demonstrate  that  a  thing 
ought  to  be,  the  temptation  is  almost  irresistible  to  cry  out 
it  shall  be.  And  yet  compulsion  and  interference  are  so 
essentially  mischievous  that  it  is  often  better  (I  believe  I 
may  say  it  is  always  better)  to  tolerate  the  worst  social 
evils  than  to  seek  to  remove  those  evils  by  the  coarse  hand 
of  the  legislator.  The  present  state  of  things  in  England 
concerning  inheritance  and  succession  is  no  doubt  very 
bad,  and  does  great  harm  ;  but,  unless  you  can  convince 
society  of  the  harm,  any  alteration  of  the  law  would  defeat 
its  own  aim  by  provoking  a  reaction.  The  history  of  hu- 
man affairs  in  modern  times  is  the  history  of  these  reac- 


388  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

tions,  all  of  which  have  been  full  of  danger,  and  none  of 
which  would  have  occurred  if  men  would  bide  their  time, 
and  would  only  condescend  to  sap  bad  institutions  before 
they  try  to  overthrow  them. 

"  I  am  very  glad  that  you  like 's  letters  ;  but  I 

assure  you  that  I  have  not  the  least  hand  in  them.  I 
make  a  point  of  never  seeing  what  the  boys  write,  or  of 
suggesting  to  them  what  they  should  write,  except  that 
I  sometimes  remind  them  to  let  you  know  about  their 
health.  may  possibly  have  repeated  part  of  my  con- 
versation about  what  we  had  seen  together.  However 
this  may  be,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  both  the 
boys  are  much  improving.  Their  habits  of  industry  (I 
mean  industry  as  a  pleasure)  are  so  formed  that  it  is  quite 
a  pleasure  to  me  to  see  them  take  up  their  books ;  and 
they  are  beginning  to  talk  with  eagerness  about  saving 
their  money  when  they  go  home  to  form  a  library  of  their 
own.  told  me  a  day  or  two  ago  that  he  now  won- 
dered that  he  could  ever  have  liked  story-books  when 
books  of  history  and  travels  were  so  much  more  inter- 
esting. He  added,  that  he  should  get  his  mamma  to  give 
him  other  books  in  exchange  for  his  story-books,  since 
these  .  .  .  were  by  no  means  good  enough  for  him. 

"  Such  aspirations  are  not  to  be  laughed  at ;  still  less 
are  they  to  be  repressed.  .  .  . 

"About  the  19th  or  20th  we  shall,  I  hope,  cross  the 
desert  to  Sinai,  and  if  possible  go  from  Sinai  through  Pe- 
tra  to  Jerusalem.  If,  as  constantly  happens,  Petra  should 
be  unsafe,  we  shall  return  to  Cairo,  after  seeing  Sinai ; 
and  from  Cairo  cross  the  desert,  at  the  north  by  El  Arish, 
to  Gaza  and  Hebron.  Directly  we  get  to  Cairo  I  shall 


EEPLY  TO  ME.  HUTH.  389 

begin  to  make  preparations,  and  buy  the  tents,  furniture, 
etc.  In  Palestine  and  Syria  I  do  not  intend  to  go  into 
hotels  anywhere,  nor  even  at  Jerusalem.  They  are  often 
damp  and  dirty,  and  I  am  satisfied  that  tent-life,  with 
proper  precautions,  may  be  made  extremely  healthy.  But 
I  have  as  yet  found  few  travelers  who  will  take  these 
precautions ;  and  three  or  four  parties  on  the  Nile  who 
wished  to  travel  with  us  to  Jerusalem,  under  one  common 
arrangement,  have  turned  back,  and  declined  my  plans  as 
too  extravagant.  And  yet,  if  I  know  anything  of  myself, 
there  is  no  one  less  extravagant  than  I  am.  But  in  these 
countries  (especially  when  we  shall  undergo  the  fatigue  of 
traveling  eight  or  nine  hours  every  day  for  weeks  on  cam- 
els or  on  horseback)  comfort  and  health  are  synonymous. 
I  shall  buy  at  Cairo  iron  bedsteads  and  good  thick  blan- 
kets ;  and,  looking  at  these  and  other  appliances,  my  drag- 
oman calculates  that  we  shall  need  eighteen  or  twenty 
camels.  At  present  we  have  three  servants — our  dragoman 
(i.  e.,  Hassan),  an  excellent  cook,  and  a  boy  about  eighteen 
or  nineteen  ;  the  boy  is  dull  and  inefficient,  so  I  shall  get 
rid  of  him  at  Cairo,18  but  the  other  two  I  shall  take  on 
with  me.  Instead,  therefore,  of  the  badly  cooked,  in- 
digestible stuff  which  most  Eastern  travelers  eat  at  the 
khans,  or  in  large  towns  at  the  hotels,"  we  shall  be  well 
fed  ;  and,  if  I  can  succeed  in  keeping  the  boys'  digestive 
functions  in  complete  order,  I  have  not  the  smallest  fear 
of  the  fatigue  and  exposure  hurting  them.  I  shall  supply 

16  Or,  as  one  of  the  boys  has  it :  "  Instead  of  our  fool  of  a  boy,  we  are 
going  to  have  a  man  to  wait  on  us,  who  has  been  in  the  desert  before.     Mr. 
B.  says  that  it  makes  him  mad  to  talk  to  the  boy  we  have  now." 

17  This  is  all  changed  now,  and  travelers  generally  have  their  own  cooks. 
Even  in  1862  people  were  beginning  to  travel  more  luxuriously. 


390  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WHITINGS. 

my  servants  well  with  fire-arms,  and  have  the  best  escort 
that  can  be  procured.  My  present  plan  is  to  buy  three 
horses  at  Cairo,  and  have  them  sent  on  to  meet  us  when 
we  enter  Palestine;  for  some  of  the  best  horses  in  the 
world,  the  fine  old  Arab  breed,  are  to  be  had  at  Cairo ; 
and  they  are  perfectly  docile  and  capable  of  long-continued 
exertion — qualities  in  which  the  Syrian  horses  are  very 
inferior. 

"  This  will  be  a  very  expensive  journey ;  but  looking 
at  the  objects  to  be  attained  by  it,  I  shall  not  grudge  the 
cost,  and  (unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken  in  your  views  con- 
cerning the  boys)  you  will  not  grudge  it  either.  At  all 
events,  it  is  clear  that  if  the  journey  is  to  be  made  by  boys 
not  very  strong,  and  by  a  man  not  much  stronger,  it  would 
be  madness  to  spare  money,  when  money  will  increase  the 
chance  of  impunity.  Perhaps  you  will  think  it  unneces- 
sary for  me  to  have  said  thus  much ;  and  I  know  that  in 
a  mere  pecuniary  point  of  view  such  considerations  can 
not  trouble  you.  Still,  no  one  likes  to  incur  expense  with- 
out knowing  the  reason  why,  and  I  have  thought  it  just 
to  give  you  these  details.  That  you  will  be  amply  repaid 
in  the  improvement  of  your  boys,  I  confidently  believe ; 
and  most  assuredly  if  I  had  not  believed  it  nothing  would 
have  induced  me  to  take  them. 

"  I  hope  that  the  thinness  of  the  envelope  will  not  pre- 
vent this  from  reaching  you  safely ;  but  I  have  no  thicker 
ones,  and  none  are  to  be  procured  here.  We  shall  send 
home  two  cases  of  antiquities.  Some  of  them  are  valu- 
able, and  very  fragile.  They  will  be  packed  with  great 
care,  and  sent  to  Messrs.  Briggs,  at  Alexandria,  who  will 
forward  them  to  you  by  the  first  ship  which  goes  direct  to 


MES.  LIEDER.  391 

London.  Please  to  be  present  yourself  when  they  are  ex- 
amined at  the  Custom-house.  They  contain  nothing  but 
antiquities,  on  which  there  is  now  no  duty ;  bu&  be  so  kind 
as  to  see  that  every  article  which  is  looked  at  is  replaced 
in  the  paper  in  which  it  is  wrapped,  as  such  paper  bears 
generally  some  particulars  respecting  it,  which  I  should  be 
sorry  to  lose." 

At  Cairo  he  greatly  increased  his  collection  of  antiqui- 
ties, buying  at  various  dealers',  but  chiefly  from  a  museum 
called  the  Odeschalchi.  These  he  catalogued  carefully  in 
the  way  which  we  have  seen,  and  the  same  entry  was  on 
the  paper  wrapper  of  the  article  when  packed.  In  this  he 
was  much  assisted  by  a  Mrs.  Lieder,  the  wife  of  the  Lu- 
theran clergyman  at  Cairo,  who  had  for  twenty  years  her- 
self been  collecting  antiquities,  chiefly  figures,  and  afforded 
Mr.  Buckle  every  assistance — looking  at  his  antiquities 
which  he  brought  to  show  her,  assigning  their  period,  and 
finally  having  them  packed  in  her  own  house.  She  and 
her  sister  delighted  in  Buckle's  conversation ;  and  though 
the  talk  was  chiefly  on  the  country  and  antiquities,  yet  the 
author  remembers  one  occasion  when  they  asked  him  to  sit 
down  and  explain  the  accusation  against  him  of  attacking 
religion  (!)  in  his  book.  Buckle  sat  down,  and  spoke  for 
at  least  half  an  hour  with  an  uninterrupted  flow  of  words, 
explaining  the  real  position  he  maintained ;  but  the  effort 
was  rather  too  much  for  him,  and  he  had  to  lie  down  in 
his  little  cabin  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  So  energetic  the 
mind,  so  weak  and  feeble  and  faint  the  vesture  of  decay 
that  closed  it  in ! 

"We  have  seen  that  Buckle  counted  on  at  most  sixteen 
days'  detention  at  Cairo,  but  his  actual  stay  was  twenty- 


392  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

seven  days.     The  following  letter,  dated  23d  February, 
will  explain  his  generous  reason : 

"  You  will  be  surprised  to  find  that  we  are  still  here. 
But  I  have  (with  some  hesitation)  determined  to  postpone 
our  departure  till  after  the  arrival  of  the  Delta,  which, 
according  to  your  letter,  received  five  days  ago,  should 
leave  Southampton  on  the  12th,  and  should  reach  Alexan- 
dria on  the  25th  or  26th.  The  truth  is  that  the  boys  are 
getting  on  so  admirably,  and  Josephus's  '  Antiquities  of 
the  Jews '  is  so  essential  for  their  study  of  Palestine,  that 
I  have  deemed  it  advisable  to  forego  the  advantage  of  an 
earlier  start,  rather  than  stop  the  course  of  their  reading, 
now  that  their  minds  are  fresh  and  eager.  Had  we  left 
here  on  the  19th,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  receive 
this  very  important  book  until  we  reached  Jerusalem,  and 
perhaps  (so  uncertain  are  the  means  of  transit  in  the  East) 
we  should  not  have  received  it  till  we  were  at  Beyrout, 
about  the  beginning  of  May.  Although,  therefore,  the 
camels  have  been  engaged  since  the  19th,  as  well  as  the 
servants — of  whom  I  take,  besides  the  cook  and  Hassan, 
two  well-armed  men,  and  also  two  of  the  most  influential 
sheiks  belonging  to  the  tribes  through  which  we  pass  (these 
are  in  addition  to  the  camel-leaders,  etc.) — I  am  still  keep- 
ing on  the  boat  and  crew,  living  en  prince  with  these  splen- 
did establishments.  But,  seriously  speaking,  while  I  see 
the  dear  little  fellows  so  eager  about  knowledge,  I  could  not 
deprive  them  of  another  chance  of  getting  their  unfortu- 
nate and  long-delayed  book.  When  I  told •  that  you 

had  written  to  say  that  the  ( Antiquities  of  the  Jews '  were 
not  coming  with  the  first  parcel,  I  really  thought  he  would 
have  cried,  so  piteous  was  his  disappointment ;  and 


STAY  AT  CAIRO.  393 

was  nearly  as  bad.  I  am  sure  that  you  did  all  in  your 
power  to  push  matters  on,  but  the  delay  has  been  vexatious 
for  several  reasons.  However,  I  shall  have  everything  in 
preparation  to  enter  the  desert  directly  Josephus  is  deliv- 
ered ;  so  that  the  28th  will,  I  hope,  see  us  fairly  oif.  In 
the  desert  I  purpose  husbanding  our  strength  by  traveling 
slowly ;  and  every  five  or  six  days  I  shall  encamp  for  an 
entire  day,  if  I  see  the  least  symptoms  of  over-fatigue. 
Consequently  we  shall  have  plenty  of  time  for  reading, 
and,  I  trust,  plenty  of  vigor  for  talking.  At  present  we 
are  all  in  high  health  and  spirits. 

"The  revolver  strikes  me  as  very  beautiful,  but  my 
admiration  is  the  admiration  of  ignorance.  The  books, 
shirts,  etc.,  were  all  quite  right.  ..." 

During  this  stay  at  Cairo  he  read  much,  viz.,  Kenrick's 
"  History  of  Egypt,"  Birch's  "  Gallery  of  Antiquities,"  St. 
John's  "  Turks  in  Europe,"  Eenan's  interesting  Introduc- 
tion to  "  Le  Livre  de  Job,"  Eenan's  "  Etudes  d'Histoire 
Eeligieux,"  besides  finishing  the  Old  Testament,  which 
he  had  begun  on  the  Nile.  But  this  was  only  in  the  inter- 
vals and  odd  corners  of  his  time,  which  was  chiefly  spent, 
as  I  have  already  said,  at  Mrs.  Lieder's  and  her  antiqui- 
ties, and  in  seeing  Cairo,  and  his  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances, among  whom  Mr.  Thayer,  the  American  Consul- 
General,  by  his  exceeding  kindness  occupied  a  prominent 
place. 

The  account  of  Buckle  in  Cairo  is  admirably  given 
by  an  American  gentleman  who  met  him  there,18  and  to 

is  «  personal  Keminiscences  of  the  late  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,"  in  the 
"Atlantic  Monthly,"  for  April,  1863,  pp.  488-499  ;  and  I  quote  as  nearly  as 
possible  his  own  words. 


394  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

whom  he  was  introduced,  as  well  as  to  Mr.  Thayer,  at  a 
dinner  given  by  Mr.  C.,  which  took  place  at  an  hotel 
called  the  Eestaurant  d' Auric,  on  February  5th.  Buckle, 
he  says,  talked  with  a  velocity  and  fullness  of  facts  that 
was  wonderful.  The  rest  could  do  little  but  listen  and 
ask  questions.  And  yet  he  did  not  seem  to  be  lecturing  ; 
the  stream  of  his  conversation  flowed  along  easily  and 
naturally.  Nor  was  it  didactic ;  Buckle's  range  of  reading 
has  covered  everything  in  elegant  literature,  as  well  as  the 
ponderous  works  whose  titles  make  so  formidable  a  list  at 
the  beginning  of  his  History ;  and  as  he  remembers  every- 
thing he  has  read,  he  can  produce  his  stores  upon  the  mo- 
ment, for  the  illustration  of  whatever  subject  that  happens 
to  turn  up. 

He  expressed  a  strong  hope  that  England  would  take 
no  part  against  America,  and  do  nothing  to  break  the 
blockade.  His  next  volume  was  to  be  on  the  United 
States  and  Germany,  and  would  contain  a  complete  view 
of  the  German  philosophy ;  but  he  will  visit  America  be- 
fore he  writes.  Although  appreciating  the  great  work  of 
De  Tocqueville,  he  complains  of  the  general  inadequacy 
of  European  criticism  upon  America.  Gasparin's  books, 
by  the  way,  he  has  not  seen.  For  his  own  part,  he  con- 
siders the  subject  too  vast,  he  says,  and  the  testimony  too 
conflicting,  to  permit  him  to  write  upon  it  before  he  has 
seen  the  country ;  and  meanwhile  he  scrupulously  abstains 
from  forming  any  conclusive  opinions.  Subject  to  this 
reservation  of  judgment,  however,  he  remarked  that  he 
was  inclined  to  think  that  George  the  Third  forced  the 
Americans  prematurely  into  democracy,  although  the  nat- 
ural tendency  of  things  in  both  countries  was  toward  it ; 


HIS  APPRECIATION  OF  YOUNG  MEN.  395 

and  lie  thought  that  perhaps  we  had  established  a  political 
democracy  without  having  yet  achieved  an  intellectual 
democracy ;  the  two  ought  to  go  hand  in  hand  together. 
The  common  people  in  England,  he  said,  are  by  far  the 
most  useful  class  of  society.  He  had  been  especially 
pleased  by  the  numerous  letters  he  had  received  from 
working-men  who  had  read  his  book.  These  letters  often 
surprised  him  by  the  acuteness  and  capacity  displayed  by 
their  writers.  The  nobility  would  perish  utterly,  if  it 
were  not  constantly  recruited  from  commoners.  Lord 
Brougham  was  the  first  member  of  the  secular  peerage 
who  continued  after  his  elevation  to  sign  his  name  in  full, 
"  H.  Brougham,"  which  he  did  to  show  his  continued  sym- 
pathy with  the  class  from  which  he  sprang.  Buckle  re- 
marked that  the  history  of  the  peasantry  of  no  European 
country  has  ever  been  written,  or  ever  can  be  written,  and 
without  it  the  record  of  the  doings  of  kings  and  nobles  is 
mere  chaff.  Surnames  were  not  introduced  until  the  elev- 
enth century,  and  it  is  only  since  that  period  that  geneal- 
ogy has  become  possible. 

Another  very  pleasant  thing,  continues  this  writer,  is 
Mr.  Buckle's  cordial  appreciation  of  young  men.  He  re- 
peated the  story  that,  when  Harvey  announced  to  the 
world  his  great  discovery  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood, 
among  the  physicians  who  received  it  was  none  above  the 
age  of  forty.  Mr.  Thayer  told  him  of  some  of  his  friends 
who  had  read  his  book  with  especial  satisfaction.  He  evi- 
dently took  pleasure  in  this  sort  of  appreciation,  and  said 
that  this  was  the  class  of  readers  he  sought.  "  In  fact,  the 
young  men,"  he  said,  "  are  the  only  readers  of  much  value ; 
it  is  they  who  shape  the  future."  He  said  that  Thackeray 


396  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

and  Delane  had  told  him  he  would  find  Boston  very  like 
England.  He  knew  but  few  Bostonians.  He  had  cor- 
responded with  Theodore  Parker,  whom  he  considered  a 
remarkable  man ;  he  had  preserved  but  one  of  his  letters, 
which  he  returned  to  Mrs.  Parker,  in  answer  to  her  re- 
quest for  materials  to  aid  in  preparing  the  memoir  of  her 
late  husband.  Buckle  says  that  he  does  not  generally  pre- 
serve other  than  business  letters." 

He  had  anecdotes  to  tell  of  Johnson,  Lamb,  Macaulay, 
Yoltaire,  Talleyrand,  etc.,  and  quoted  passages  from  Burke 
and  from  Junius  at  length,  and  in  the  exact  words.  Junius 
he  considered  proved  to  be  Sir  Philip  Francis.  He  told  a 
good  story  against  Wordsworth,  contained  in  a  letter  from 
Lamb  to  Talfourd,  too  personal  to  publish,  but  which  the 
latter  had  shown  to  the  present  Lord  Aberdare.  Lamb 
says  that  Wordsworth,  who  worshiped  nobody  but  him- 
self, affected  to  slight  Shakespeare — said  he  was  a  clever 
man,  but  his  style  had  a  good  deal  of  trick  in  it,  and  that 
he  could  imitate  him  if  he  had  a  mind  to.  "  So  you  see," 
writes  Lamb,  "  there's  nothing  wanting  but  the  mind." 20 

Mr.  Buckle  had  a  very  low  opinion  of  the  ancient 
Egyptian  civilization,  differing  in  this  respect  altogether 
from  Hekekayan  Bey,  an  Armenian,  a  well-read,  intelli- 
gent man,  and  formerly  Minister  of  Public  Instruction, 
who  was  one  of  the  company.21  Buckle  declared  that  the 
machines,  as  figured  on  the  monuments,  etc.,  are  of  the 
most  primitive  kind ;  and  that  learning,  by  all  accounts, 

19  This  letter  did  not  arrive,  and  must  have  been  lost  in  the  post. 

20  Buckle  kept  a  small  Commonplace  Book  for  anecdotes,  and  this  is 
among  themi 

51  Author  of  a  "  Treatise  on  the  Chronology  of  the  Siriadic  Monuments," 
1863. 


BUCKLE'S  OPINION  OF  TURKISH  CIVILIZATION.    397 

was  confined  to  the  priests,  and  covered  a  very  narrow 
range,  exhibiting  no  traces  of  acquaintance  with  the  higher 
useful  arts.  He  says  that  it  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that 
savages  are  bodily  superior  to  civilized  men.  Captain 
Cook  found  that  his  sailors  could  outwork  the  islanders. 
For  Turkish  civilization  he  had  not  the  slightest  respect,  and 
said  that  he  could  write  the  whole  of  it  on  the  back  of  his 
hands ;  and  here  Hekekayan  Bey  cordially  agreed  with  him. 

Mr.  Thayer  asked  him,  if  in  England  he  had  been  sub- 
jected to  personal  hostility  for  his  opinions,  or  to  anything 
like  social  ostracism  ?  He  said  generally  not.  A  letter 
from  a  clergyman  to  an  acquaintance  in  England,  express- 
ing intense  antipathy  to  him,  although  he  had  never  seen 
the  writer,  was  the  only  evidence  of  this  kind  of  opposi- 
tion.22 "  In  fact,"  said  he,  naively,  "  the  people  of  England 
have  such  an  admiration  of  any  kind  of  intellectual  splen- 
dor that  they  will  forgive  for  its  sake  the  most  objection- 
able doctrines." 

He  told  the  company  that  the  portion  of  his  book 
which  relates  to  Spain  had  been  translated  into  Spanish." 
Mr.  Thayer  remarked  that  to  this  circumstance,  no  doubt, 
we  may  ascribe  some  part  of  the  modern  regeneration  of 

82  Compare  the  Rev.  A.  K.  H.  Boyd's  "  I  have  mildly  vented  my  indigna- 
tion ;  and  I  now,  in  a  moral  sense,  extend  my  hand  to  Mr.  Buckle.  Had  he 
come  up  that  corkscrew  stair  an  hour  or  two  ago,  I  am  not  entirely  certain 
that  I  might  not  have  taken  him  by  the  collar  and  shaken  him.  And  had  I 
found  him  standing  on  a  chair  in  the  green  behind  the  church,  and  indoc- 
trinating my  simple  parishioners  with  his  peculiar  notions,  I  have  an  entire 
conviction  that  I  should  have  forgotten  my  theoretical  assent  to  the  doctrine 
of  religious  toleration,  and  by  a  gentle  hint  to  my  sturdy  friends  procured 
him  an  invigorating  bath  in  that  gleaming  river." — P.  650,  vol.  lix.,  "  Fra- 
ser's  Magazine,"  No.  354,  for  June,  1859. 

23  At  the  instance,  risk,  and  under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  Henry 
Huth.  But  Mr.  Buckle  was  enjoined  not  to  mention  this  fact. 


398  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

Spain,  the  leading  statesmen  being  persuaded  to  a  more 
liberal  policy ;  but  this  view  Buckle  disclaimed,  with  an 
eagerness  seeming  to  be  something  more  than  the  offspring 
of  modesty. 

After  dinner,  continues  the  contributor  to  the  "  Atlan- 
tic Monthly,"  we  returned  to  Mrs.  R.'s  apartments,  where 
we  had  tea.  Buckle  and  Hekekayan  now  got  into  an  ani- 
mated discussion  upon  the  ancient  Egyptian  civilization, 
which  scarcely  gave  the  rest  of  us  a  chance  to  put  in  a 
single  word.  It  was,  however,  exceedingly  interesting  to 
sit  and  listen.  Indeed,  although  there  was  nothing  awful 
about  Buckle,  one  felt  a  little  abashed  to  intrude  his  own 
remarks  in  such  a  presence.  We  staid  until  near  midnight, 
and  then,  taking  our  leave,  Buckle  accompanied  S.  and 
myself  as  far  as  the  door  of  our  hotel.  Buckle  received 
most  kindly  all  suggestions  made  to  him  of  books  to  be 
read  on  American  affairs,  and  people  to  be  seen  in  the 
United  States. 

On  February  9th  Buckle  dined  with  Mr.  Thayer  at 
the  Hotel  des  Ambassadeurs.  Buckle  was  in  excellent 
spirits,  and,  as  before,  was  the  life  of  the  party.  They  had 
been  terribly  afraid  lest  he  and  Hekekayan  should  get  into 
another  long  disputation,  for  the  excellent  Bey  had  forti- 
fied himself  with  new  materials ;  but  the  ladies  were  taken 
into  their  confidence  to  aid  in  turning  the  conversation, 
should  it  be  necessary,  all  of  which  made  a  great  deal  of 
entertainment;  but  there  proved  to  be  no  occasion  for 
anything  of  the  sort. 

Buckle  told  some  capital  stories :  among  them,  one 
against  Alison,  almost  too  good  to  be  true,  namely,  that  in 
the  first  edition  of  his  History  he  mentioned  among  the 


HIS   COMPLIMENT  TO  MR.   THAYER.  399 

causes  of  the  French  Kevolution  "  tlie  timber  duty,"  be- 
cause he  had  read  in  a'  French  pamphlet  that  there  were 
popular  discontents  about  the  droits  de  timbre.  Alison's 
History,  he  said,  is  the  very  worst  that  ever  was  written.24 
He  cited  the  definition  that  "  fine  writing  is  that  which  is 
true  without  being  obvious."  In  the  course  of  the  conver- 
sation— in  which,  as  before,  Buckle  touched  points  in  the 
whole  circle  of  literature  and  science,  giving  quotations 
even  in  Hebrew  from  the  Talmud  and  the  Bible — he  made 
a  very  pretty  compliment  to  his  host,  introduced  as  adroit- 
ly as  from  the  lips  of  a  professed  courtier,  but  evidently 
spoken  on  the  moment.  It  was  something  in  this  way : 
Hekekayan  and  Buckle  were  in  argument,  and  Buckle 

24  He  has  many,  and  by  no  means  complimentary,  remarks  on  Alison's 
History  in  various  parts  of  his  writings :  "  Began  to  read  for  the  first  time 
'  Alison's  History  of  Europe,'  of  which  I  looked  through  his  very  superficial 
view  of  the  ultimate  results  of  the  French  Revolution  at  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  volume." — "  Diary,"  26th  May,  1851.  "  In  Alison's  '  Principles 
of  Population '  .  .  .  there  are  some  singularly  superficial  remarks  upon  the 
poor-laws  and  population.  .  .  .  Amid  all  this  nonsense,  Alison  has  one  good 
remark.  .  .  .  " — Pp.  453,  454.  "Alison  actually  supposes  'that  prices 
inevitably  rise  in  an  old  and  wealthy  community,  from  the  great  quantity  of 
the  precious  metals  in  the  existing  currency  which  their  opulence  enables 
them,  and  their  numerous  mercantile  transactions  compel  them,  to  keep  in 
circulation,  and  consequently,'  etc.,  etc. !!!"— P.  528,  vol.  i.,  "Posthumous 
Works."  "  The  ordinary  compilers,  such  as  Sir  A.  Alison." — P.  329,  note. 
The  reign  of  William  the  Third  is  "  frequently  misunderstood  even  by  those 
who  praise  it.  Thus,  for  instance,  a  living  writer  informs  us,"  that  William 
the  Third  had  "the  art  of  overcoming  the  ignorant  impatience  of  taxation 
which  is  the  invariable  characteristic  of  free  communities." — P.  368,  note. 
Talking  of  the  reign  of  €harles  the  First :  "  Sir  A.  Alison  notices  in  his 
History  (vol.  iv.,  p.  213),  *  how  widely  the  spirit  of  discontent  was  diffused' 
in  1796 ;  and  the  only  wonder  is,  that  the  people  were  able  to  keep  it  in 
bounds.  That,  however,  is  a  question  which  writers  of  his  stamp  never 
consider." — P.  456,  note.  "  The  common  opinion,  put  forth  in  '  Alison's  His- 
tory of  Europe.'  "—P.  483,  note,  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  i. 

The  writer  in  the  "  Atlantic,"  however,  adds  that  he  has  been  unable  to 
confirm  Buckle's  anecdote. 


400  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

said,  "  Ah,  you  mistake  a  necessary  condition  for  the  cause." 
"  What  is  cause  but  necessary  condition  ?  "  asked  Hekeka- 
yan.  "  Yery  different :  two  men  can't  fight  a  duel  with- 
out meeting ;  but  every  two  men  who  meet  don't  fight  a 
duel."  "  But  they  couldn't  fight  a  duel  without  meeting," 
persisted  Hekekayan.  "  Yes,"  rejoined  Buckle ;  "  but  the 
meeting  isn't  the  cause  of  the  duel.  Why,  there  could 
not  be  a  dinner-party  unless  the  company  met ;  but  our 
meeting  here  to-day  isn't  the  cause  of  the  dinner :  the  cause 
of  the  dinner  is  the  kindness  of  our  host."  "  Or  rather  of 
the  landlord,"  said  ~N.  "  Oh  no !  of  the  American  Govern- 
ment," said  C.  "  Ah,"  said  Buckle,  "  those  things  are  not 
cause :  the  cause  of  our  good  dinner,  I  maintain,  is  only 
the  charming  hospitality  of  the  Consul-General." 

The  next  day  Buckle  again  dined  with  Mr.  Thayer, 
when  he  sat  next  to  the  writer  in  the  "  Atlantic,"  asked 
about  American  books,  and  told  him  his  opinion  of  those 
he  had  read.  He  said  that  Quincy's  "  History  of  Harvard 
University "  was  the  latest  book  on  America  he  had  re- 
ceived before  leaving  England.  He  preferred  Kent's  ex- 
position of  the  United  States  Constitution  to  Story's,  al- 
though this  also  he  had  consulted  and  used.  He  had  not 
seen  Mr.  Adams's  complete  edition  of  the  works  of  his 
grandfather,  nor  Parton's  "  Life  of  Jackson,"  both  of  which 
he  was  recommended  to  read,  particularly  the  chapters  in 
the  former  in  which  are  traced  the  steps  in  the  progress 
of  making  the  American  Constitutions.  He  said  he  would 
not  visit  America  till  the  domestic  troubles  were  composed, 
for  he  desired  to  see  the  practical  working  of  the  American 
institutions  in  their  normal  state,  not  confused  and  dis- 
turbed by  the  excitements  of  war.  He  would  go  first  to 


CONTEMPLATED   VISIT  TO  AMEKICA.  401 

Boston  and  New  York,  the  intellectual  and  commercial 
heads,  as  he  said,  of  the  republic ;  and  to  "Washington,  the 
political  capital.  He  would  then  like  to  pass4'  from  the 
Northern  into  the  Southern  States,  but  asked  if  he  could 
travel  safely  in  the  latter,  in  view  of  his  extreme  opinions 
in  detestation  of  slavery.  From  the  Southern  States  he 
said  he  would  wish  to  pass  into  Mexico,  thence  into  Peru 
and  to  Chili ;  then  to  cross  the  Pacific  Ocean  to  Japan,  to 
China,  to  India,  and  so  back  by  the  overland  route  to  Eng- 
land. This  magnificent  scheme  he  had  seriously  resolved 
upon,  and  proposed  to  devote  to  it  two  or  three  years.  He 
undertook  it  partly  for  information,  and  partly  for  relaxa- 
tion of  his  mental  faculties,  which  he  had  injured  by  over- 
work, and  which  imperatively  demanded  repose.  He 
asked  many  questions  with  regard  to  matters  of  detail : 
whether  he  would  find  conveyance  by  steamers  in  the  Pa- 
cific, and  of  what  sort  would  be  the  accommodation  in 
them  and  in  sailing-vessels.  He  asked  at  what  season  he 
had  best  arrive  in  the  United  States,  and  whether  he  had 
better  land  at  New  York  or  at  Boston.  Boston,  he  said, 
he  regarded  as  "the  intellectual  head  of  the  country, 
and  New  York,  you  know,  for  trade."  His  friend  an- 
swered these  questions  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  and  told 
him  that  he  must  not  omit  seeing  the  "Western  country,  and 
some  of  the  new  cities,  like  Chicago.  Buckle  asked  him 
if  he  knew  "  a  Mrs.  Child,"  who  had  written  him  a  letter, 
and  sent  him  her  book  about  the  history  of  religion.  He 
had  been  pleased  with  the  letter  and  the  book. 

The  conversation  became  general,  and  Mr.  B ,  of 

New  York,  told  a  story  of  an  old  Congressional  debate,  in 
which  John  Randolph  derisively  compared  Edward  Ever- 

26 


402  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

ett  to  Kichelieu.  Buckle  at  once  said  he  should  regard  it 
as  a  compliment  of  the  very  highest  kind  to  be  compared 
to  Richelieu.  On  being  asked  if  he  had  read  Dumas's 
novels,  he  said  he  had  not,  although  he  had  felt  an  inclina- 
tion to  do  so.  He  asked  one  or  two  questions  about  them, 
and  gave  a  rapid  generalization  of  the  history  of  France  at 
that  time. 

Mr.  Thayer  showed  him  the  little  stock  of  books  he 
happened  to  have  with  him  in  Cairo.  Mr.  Buckle  looked 
them  over  with  interest,  expressing  his  opinions  upon 
them.  One  of  them,  Mr.  Bayle  St.  John's  little  book  on 
the  Turkish  question,  he  borrowed,  although  he  said  that 
he  denied  himself  all  reading  on  this  journey,  undertaken 
for  mental  rest,  and  had  brought  no  books  with  him. 
They  got  upon  the  inevitable  question  of  international 
copyright,  which  he  discussed  in  a  spirit  of  remarkable 
candor.  His  own  experience  was  this :  Messrs.  Appleton 
reprinted  his  first  volume  without  compensation,  asking 
him  to  furnish  materials  for  a  prefatory  memoir,  of  which 
request  he  took  no  notice ; 2&  afterward,  when  the  second 
volume  was  published,  they  sent  him  something — I  be- 
lieve fifty  pounds.  Buckle's  American  friend  pointed  out 
a  distinction  between  copyright  for  the  British  author 
and  monopoly  for  the  British  publisher.  He  added  that 
the  American  people  and  their  representatives  in  Con- 
gress would  not  have  the  least  objection  to  paying  a  tri- 
fling addition  to  the  cost  of  books,  which  would  make, 
upon  the  immense  editions  sold  of  the  popular  books,  a 
handsome  compensation  to  the  foreign  authors,  but  that 
they  have  very  decided  objections  to  the  English  system 
25  See  ante,  the  letter  to  Mr.  Capel,  p.  134. 


A  VISIT  FROM  MR.  HOLYOAKE.  403 

of  enormously  high,  prices  for  books.  lie  instanced  sev- 
eral books,  which  could  be  bought  in  the  United  States 
for  a  quarter  or  half  a  dollar,  while  in  England  they  can 
not  be  purchased  for  less  than  a  guinea  and  a  half — that 
is,  for  seven  or  eight  dollars,  although  the  author  gains 
very  little  by  these  high  prices,  which,  indeed,  would  be 
absolutely  prohibitory  of  the  circulation  of  the  books  in 
the  United  States.  And  since  the  great  literary  market 
of  the  United  States  has  been  created  at  the  public  ex- 
pense, by  the  maintenance  of  the  system  of  universal  edu- 
cation, it  is,  perhaps,  not  unreasonable  that  the  American 
legislators  should  insist  upon  preserving,  by  the  compe- 
tition among  publishers,  the  advantages  of  low  prices  of 
books  in  pursuance  of  a  policy  which  looks  to  a  wide  cir- 
culation. In  Great  Britain  the  publishers  follow  a  differ- 
ent policy,  and  insist  upon  selling  books  at  high  prices  to 
a  comparatively  small  circle  of  readers. 

Mr.  Buckle  was  kind  enough  to  listen  attentively  to 
this  sort  of  reasoning,  and  admitted  that  it  was  entitled  to 
some  degree  of  weight.  Indeed,  he  said  that  he  had  ear- 
nestly wished  to  bring  out  a  cheap  edition  of  his  own 
book  in  England,  omitting  the  notes  and  references,  for 
the  use  of  the  working  classes,  of  whose  appreciation  he 
had  received  many  gratifying  proofs ; 28  he  had  made  his 
arrangements  for  this  purpose,  but  was  prevented  from 
carrying  them  out  by  the  opposition  of  his  publishers,  who 
objected  that  such  an  edition  would  injure  their  interest  in 
the  more  costly  edition.  But  Mr.  Buckle  freely  declared 

26  Buckle's  diary  has  the  following  entry,  18th  November,  1862:  "A 
visit  from  Mr.  Holyoake,  whom  I  now  saw  for  the  first  time,  and  who  wishes 
me  to  publish  an  edition  of  my  History  on  common  paper  for  six  shillings, 
leaving  out  the  notes." 


404:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

that  he  would,  in  his  circumstances,  rather  forego  the 
profit  on  the  sale  of  his  book  than  restrict  its  circulation. 
This  conversation  led  to  a  description  of  the  reading  pub- 
lic in  America,  of  the  intelligence  and  independence  of 
our  working  people,  of  their  habits  of  life  and  of  thought, 
about  which  Buckle  manifested  great  interest,  asking  many 
intelligent  questions. 

On  February  13th  there  was  a  religious  celebration, 
including  an  illumination,  in  the  mosque  of  the  citadel,  to 
see  which  Mr.  Thayer  had  invited  Mr.  Buckle,  as  well  as 
the  two  lads,  his  traveling  companions.  But  at  the  last 
moment  the  advice  was  strongly  given  on  all  sides  not  to 
go,  lest  some  bigoted  Mussulmans  should  take  offense,  and 
there  might  be  a  disturbance.  Not  long  before,  a  party 
of  Englishmen  had  behaved  very  badly  on  a  similar  occa- 
sion, from  which  resulted  a  disturbed  state  of  feeling.  It, 
of  course,  could  not  be  pleasant  to  people  of  any  religious 
belief  to  have  their  ceremonies  made  a  spectacle  for  curi- 
osity ;  and  although  the  mudir  promised  ample  protection, 
the  plan  was  given  up,  and,  the  company  being  gathered, 
they  had  a  pleasant  evening  together.  The  presence  of 

the  ladies  of  Mr.  B 's  party  gave  the  opportunity  to  see 

Mr.  Buckle  again  under  the  inspiration  of  ladies'  society, 
which  he  especially  enjoys,  and  in  the  lighter  conversation 
suited  to  which  he  shines  with  not  less  distinction  than 
when  conversing  upon  abstruse  topics. 

In  the  course  of  the  evening,  in  the  midst  of  conver- 
sation, in  which  he  was  taking  an  animated  part,  Mr. 
Buckle  exhibited  symptoms  of  f aintness.  Fresh  air  was 
at  once  admitted  into  the  room,  which  was  full  of  cigar 
smoke;  water  and  more  powerful  restoratives  were 


DONKEY-RIDING.  405 

brought,  but  these  lie  declined.  After  a  few  minutes'  re- 
pose upon  the  divan,  he  declared  that  he  was  perfectly  re- 
covered, and  half  an  hour  afterward  took  his?  leave  with 
the  boys. 

On  the  15th  February  Buckle  had  arranged  to  visit  the 
so-called  Petrified  Forest,  behind  the  Mokuttum  range,  in 
company  with  Mr.  Thayer  and  several  American  and  Eng- 
lish travelers.  Mr.  Buckle,  who  was  always  trying  fa- 
tigue-saving contrivances  for  his  desert  journey,  thought 
this  a  good  opportunity  for  trying  a  camel  with  the  ma- 
zetta,  a  sort  of  box  in  which  the  harem  generally  travel, 
something  like  a  palanquin  without  the  poles,  carried  on 
the  back  of  one  camel. 

The  writer  in  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly  "  says :  "  On  look- 
ing down  from  the  balcony  at  the  transportation  train  mar- 
shaled for  the  occasion,  amid  the  admiring  gaze  of  all  the 
idlers  of  Cairo,  I  was  at  first  a  little  chagrined  to  find,  as 
the  final  result  of  the  various  arrangements,  that,  besides 
the  camels,  the  mazetta,  the  carriage-and-four,  and  the 
proud-stepping  horse,  there  appeared  but  one  donkey — that 
selected  for  me.  But  I  was,  in  truth,  very  well  off.  To 
begin  with,  it  was  not  thought  prudent  that  Mr.  Buckle 
should  use  the  mazetta  until  the  procession  had  got  beyond 
the  narrow  streets  of  Cairo,  lest  the  camel  bearing  it  should 
take  fright,  and  knock  the  whole  thing  to  pieces  against 
the  wall  of  a  house.  Accordingly,  he  and  his  charges 
took  donkeys,  and  I  rode  off  with  them  at  the  head  of  the 
column.  By-and-by  Mr.  Buckle  changed  to  the  convey- 
ance originally  proposed,  but  a  very  short  experiment  (lit- 
erally, I  expect)  sickened  him  of  the  mazetta,  whose  mo- 
tion is  precisely  that  of  a  ship  in  a  storm,  and  he  sent  back 


406  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

to  the  town  for  donkeys.  At  the  next  halt  the  ladies  took 
him  into  their  carriage,  where  he  found  himself,  as  he  said, 
'  in  clover.' 

"It  pretty  soon  appeared,"  he  continues,  "that  the 
camel  which  T.  was  riding  was  young  and  frisky ;  the  ani- 
mal was  accordingly  pronounced  unsafe,  and  T.  changed  to 
a  donkey,  which  had  fortunately  been  brought  along  for  a 

reserve.  The  Hon.  W.  S 's  camel,  from  the  saddle 

becoming  unfastened,  pitched  rider  and  saddle  to  the 
ground — a  fall  of  five  or  six  feet ;  fortunately,  no  harm 
was  done,  and  he  bravely  mounted  again.  The  saddle 

upon  the  camel  which  the  Eev.  Mr.  S rode  split  in 

two,  and  the  seat  must  have  been  a  torture ;  but  he  bore 
it  like  a  martyr,  never  flinching.  But  camel  stock  had  so 
far  depreciated  that  I  was  able  to  try  as  much  as  I  liked  of 
camel-riding  now  and  then,  at  the  same  time  obliging  a 
friend  by  the  use  of  my  donkey  meanwhile.  .  .  . 

"  The  journey  to  the  forest,  about  ten  miles,  was  safely 
accomplished.  "We  found  the  petrifactions  duly  wonder- 
ful. An  excellent  luncheon  was  laid  out,  after  which  we 
had  an  hour  and  a  half  of  very  entertaining  conversation, 

in  which  Mr.  Buckle  and  the  Kev.  Mr.  S held  the 

leading  parts ;  all  around  us  as  desolate  and  silent  as  one 
could  imagine.  It  was  interesting  to  observe  the  manner 
in  which  Buckle  estimated  eminent  names,  grouping  them 
in  some  instances  in  threes — a  favorite  conceit  with  him. 
John  Stuart  Mill,  of  all  living  men,  he  considered  as  pos- 
sessing the  greatest  mind  in  the  world.  Aristotle,  New- 
ton, and  Shakespeare  are  the  greatest  the  world  has  pro- 
duced in  past  times.  Homer,  Dante,  and  Shakespeare  are 
the  only  three  great  poets.  Johnson,  Gibbon,  and  Parr 


AN  ADDITION"  TO  THE  PAETY.  407 

are  the  three  writers  who  have  done  the  greatest  harm  to 
the  English  language.  For  Hallam  he  had  a  strong  admi- 
ration. He  spoke  of  Sydney  Smith  as  the  greatest  English 
wit,  and  of  Selwyn  as  next  to  him,  and  described  Macau- 
lay's  memory  as  unequaled  in  conversation."  " 

However,  at  last  everything  was  ready,  and  one  of  the 
boys  writes  as  follows :  "  We  are  expecting  the  c  Antiqui- 
ties of  the  Jews '  either  to-day  or  to-morrow,  and  we  are 
going  to  start  for  Suez  on  Sunday.  The  camels  are  packed, 
and  are  going  to  start  to-day.  Mr.  B.  has  allowed  another 
gentleman  to  join  our  party,  a  Mr.  Glennie.  We  have 
seen  some  of  our  tent  furniture.  We  have  got  iron 
bedsteads,  that  fold  up  and  put  into  a  bag,  like  my  fish- 
ing-rod, only  thicker;  we  have  got  four  camp-stools, 
and  little  Bucky  is  going  to  have  an  iron  chair  with  a 
back  to  it,  that  folds  up,  and  a  camp-stool  to  put  his  legs 
on.  We  have  got  prepared  milk  in  tin  cases,  so  that  we 
shall  not  have  to  go.  without  milk  as  so  many  people  do ; 
and  we  have  got  preserved  tongue  in  tin  cases,  because 
we  have  nearly  eaten  all  yours,  and  boiled  beef,  and  I 
don't  know  what  all ;  so  we  won't  starve.  Other  people 
only  eat  mutton,  which  is  the  only  meat  you  can  get  from 
the  Bedouins.  I  have  read  the  '  Hebrew  Commonwealth.' 
Part  of  it  is  dry  and  part  interesting ;  it  gives  a  history  of 
the  Jews  from  the  time  of  Moses,  B.  c.  1500,  to  the  great 
Jewish  war  with  the  Romans,  and  the  taking  of  Jerusalem 
by  Titus,  A.  D.  71.  I  am  now  going  to  begin  the  subse- 
quent history  of  the  Jews,  which  is  in  the  same  volume 

27  Buckle  met  Macaulay  at  dinner,  19th  June,  1852,  at  Lord  Hatherley's 
house,  and  records  two  anecdotes  related  by  Macaulay.  Buckle's  remark  on 
Lord  Macaulay's  power  of  memory  is  thoroughly  borne  out  by  the  admi- 
rable biography  of  him  written  by  his  nephew. 


408  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WEITINGS. 

with  the  <  Hebrew  Commonwealth.'  I  think  Josephus 
will  be  very  interesting,  but  I  have  not  begun  it  yet. 

has  nearly  finished  it ;  but  I  don't  think  I  shall  be 

able  to  read  much  in  the  desert,  particularly  such  an  im- 
mense book  as  Josephus.28  "We  are  very  busy  to-day  pack- 
ing up.  Mr.  B.  is  packing  now,  and  directly  I  have  fin- 
ished this  letter  I  am  going  to  pack — so  we  won't  be  able 
to  read  much  to-day.  Mr.  B.  has  put  a  little  blistering- 
plaster  on  my  forehead  for  his  own  amusement,  and  won't 
let  me  take  it  off  again.  I  have  got  a  very  small  mum- 
mied crocodile;  it  is  such  a  darling  little  thing  that  I 
know  you  won't  mind  it."  And  the  other  boy  writes : 
"  Mr.  Buckle  still  often  puts  on  the  i  rough  brown  coat ' 
that  you  mentioned  in  your  letter,  and  I  mended  the 
sleeves  for  him,  because  he  was  always  putting  his  arms 
through  the  linings.  ...  It  is  raining  to-day,  the  second 
time  since  we  have  been  in  Egypt.  We  are  very  comfort- 
able and  jolly,  and  Mr.  Buckle  is  packing  up  antiquity 
after  antiquity  every  day.  I  have  read  Stanley,  and  I  like 
it  very  much ;  and  now  I  am  reading  Josephus,  and  I  like 
it  better." 

On  Monday,  3d  March,  a  start  was  made,  but,  through 
the  fault  of  Hassan,  the  dragoman,  the  party  just  missed 
their  train,  and  had  to  go  to  the  Hotel  des  Ambassadeurs. 
The  next  day  they  started  for  Suez  at  12.30,  where  they 
found  at  the  hotel  "  a  Mr.  Glennie,"  as  Buckle  has  entered 
in  his  diary,  "  who  has  agreed  to  join  us."  This  gentle- 
man had  called  on  Mr.  Buckle  at  Boulak  on  the  19th 
February,  when,  as  he  writes,29  "  He  was  again  kind  enough 

28  Traill's. 

29  "  Eraser's  Magazine,"  p.  174,  for  August,  1863. 


IN  THE  DESERT.  409 


to  ask  me  to  join  him  on  his  further  journey,  and  spoke  so 
enthusiastically  of  the  historical  interest  of  the  desert  life, 
that  I  said  I  should  give  him  an  answer  next  $ay.  Next 
day  our  dragoman's  contract  was  signed  at  the  Consulate." 

Mr.  Longmore,  who  also  met  Mr.  Buckle  here,  says : 
"  After  the  table  (Thote  of  that  day  at  the  Peninsular  and 
Oriental  Hotel,  we  had  a  long  discussion  on  the  subject 
of  the  different  races  of  man  being  originally  distinct,  or 
all  derived  from  one  stock.  Buckle  seemed  to  lean  strong- 
ly on  the  latter  view  of  the  question ;  and  when  the  oppo- 
site was  rather  too  strongly  maintained  by  a  gentleman 
present,  I  could  not  but  admire  the  able  and  effective  man- 
ner in  which  Mr.  Buckle  in  a  few  pithy  sentences  closed  a 
discussion  likely  to  become  disagreeable." 30 

The  next  day,  5th  March,  the  party,  which  now  in- 
cluded Mr.  Glennie,  crossed  over  by  boat  from  Suez  to 
the  opposite  shore.  The  water  was  beautifully  clear,  and 
the  rocky  bottom  visible  in  every  detail ;  but  toward  the 
coast  it  shoals  so  much  that  the  shore  has  to  be  gained  on 
men's  backs.  At  the  landing,  camels  were  waiting,  and 
the  first  desert  journey  was  a  camel-ride  of  two  miles  to 
the  encampment  at  'Am  Musa.  Here  they  found  another 
party  encamped,  who  had  just  returned  from  a  visit  to 
Sinai.  "  We  here  met,"  says  the  Rev.  St.  John  Tyrwhitt, 
"  for  the  first  and  last  time  with  Buckle,  the  historian  of 
civilization.  Nothing  can  have  been  more  delightful  than 
his  conversation  for  the  half -hour  I  passed  in  his  company, 
and  he  was  full  of  life  and  energy  of  mind.  But  his 
whole  frame  seemed  slight,  and  worn  to  a  degree ;  and  I 
thought  he  was  taking  mistaken  precautions  against  heat, 

30  "Athenaeum,"  p.  115,  25th  January,  1873. 


410  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

which  would  try  his  strength  severely." '  Mr.  Glennie 
also,  as  he  says,  hinted  to  Buckle  once  or  twice  that  his 
costume  was  too  warm ;  but  Buckle  pointed  out  that  the 
Arab  chiefs  all  wore  voluminous  clothing,  and  that  protec- 
tion from  heat  is  as  much  assured  by  flannel  as  protection 
from  cold."  The  result  of  neglect  of  this  precaution  is 
thus  told  in  Mr.  Tyrwhitt's  own  words :  "  Little  thought 
we,  on  the  Red  Sea  level,  of  the  cold  of  the  granite  glens 
of  Sinai "  ;  and  they  suffered  "  from  dysentery,  the  conse- 
quences of  heat  and  cold,  and  change  of  living,  and  long 
marches."  33  And  Buckle  points  out,  in  his  letter  from 
Jerusalem,  that  those  who  differed  from  him,  "  strong  and 
vigorous  young  men  as  they  were,  they  fared  differently — 
being  constantly  unwell,  and  always  ascribing  their  com- 
plaints to  the  wrong  cause."  34 

Buckle,  though  described  by  Mr.  Tyrwhitt  as  "  worn 
to  a  degree,"  was  at  this  time  in  better  health  than  he  had 
been  for  several  years.  His  dress  was  the  same  as  he  had 
worn  in  Egypt,  with  the  exception  that  he  substituted 
flannel  for  his  white  shirts.  These,  having  been  sent  out 
to  him  from  England,  were  not  a  very  good  fit ;  and  his 
clothing  was  altogether  old-fashioned,  and  not  new,  though 
it  was  good ;  as  an  American  writer  observes,  "  In  this  re- 

81  In  "  Vacation  Tourists  and  Notes  of  Travel,"  in  1862-'63.  Edited  by 
Fr.  Galton,  p.  356.  London  and  Cambridge.  1864. 

52  "  Eraser's  Magazine,"  p.  175,  for  August,  1863. 

33  "  Vacation  Tourists,"  pp.  331,  342. 

84  Had  Mr.  Glennie  looked  in  "  Murray,"  he  would  have  seen  that  Mr. 
Porter  says  :  "  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  wear  linen,  or  any  other  thin  mate- 
rial. Woolen  cloth  is  a  non-conductor,  and  when  we  are  protected  by  it  the 
sun's  rays  fall  harmless.  .  .  .  Many  throw  over  the  whole  a  white  Arab  bur- 
nus  of  very  thin  material,  and  this  affords  additional  protection  against  both 
heat  and  dust."—"  Handbook  to  Syria  and  Palestine,"  vol.  L,  p.  xlv.  1868. 


INDIFFERENCE  AS  TO  DRESS. 


spect  affording  a  not  disagreeable  contrast  to  the  studied 
jauntiness  which  Englishmen  are  apt  to  affect  in  their 
traveling  gear."  35  * 

As  for  the  looks  of  his  dress  Buckle  did  not  care  one 
straw.  Indeed,  he  rather  preferred  doing  things  in  a  dif- 
ferent way  to  what  was  customary.  "  The  immense  mass 
of  mankind,"  he  says,  "  are,  in  regard  to  their  usages,  in 
a  state  of  social  slavery,  each  man  being  bound  under 
heavy  penalties  to  conform  to  the  standard  of  life  common 
to  his  own  class.  .  .  .  Men,  not  cowards  in  other  respects, 
and  of  a  fair  share  of  moral  courage,  are  afraid  to  rebel 
against  this  grievous  and  exacting  tyranny.  The  conse- 
quences of  this  are  injurious,  not  only  to  those  who  desire 
to  be  freed  from  the  thraldom,  but  also  to  those  who  do 
not  desire  to  be  freed ;  that  is,  to  the  whole  of  society." 
Hence,  he  continues,  a  sufficient  number  of  experiments 
in  the  art  of  life  are  not  made,  and  knowledge  is  re- 
tarded.38 Hence  his  unbounded  contempt  for  those  who 
sneer  at  a  man  because  he  does  things  in  a  way  different 
from  what  they  have  been  accustomed  to,  without  ever 
deigning  to  inquire  into  the  merits  of  the  case,  and  some- 
times even  despite  the  evident  superiority  of  the  new  over 
the  old  method.  He  himself  refused  to  fire  salutes  on  the 
Nile,  or  carry  a  flag  in  the  desert,  merely  "  because  others 
did,"  when  he  saw  no  use  in  it.  On  one  occasion,  when 
one  of  the  boys  put  a  bottle  in  the  middle  of  the  table, 
and  Mr.  Glennie  wished  to  have  it  at  the  corner,  he  said, 

35  "Atlantic  Monthly,"  p.  491,  April,  1863.     Mr.  Glennie  adds  to  his  de- 
scription of  Buckle's  dress  (which  is  not  correct)  the  words :  u  A  wide- 
awake .  .  .  shaded  his  un-shaven  face." — "  Fraser's  Magazine,"  p.  175,  Au- 
gust, 1863.     What  he  is  endeavoring  to  say  is,  that  Buckle  wore  a  beard. 

36  "  Essay  on  Mill."     "  Posthumous  Works,"  pp.  47,  48,  vol.  i. 


412  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

"  No,  leave  it  there.  I  hate  to  see  things  always  done  in 
the  same  way." 

The  next  day  Buckle  tried  his  dromedary;  but  the 
following  he  only  rode  for  little  over  an  hour  on  that  dis- 
agreeable animal,  the  motion  of  which  he  describes  as 
"insufferable,"  and  thenceforth  traveled  on  his  Cairene 
donkey  which  he  had  provided  for  the  emergency.87 

The  route  was  by  Wady  Ghurundel  and  "Wady  et-Tai- 
yibeh,  where  the  sea-shore  is  reached;  and  here  Buckle 
and  the  boys  wandered  for  an  hour  before  dinner,  col- 
lecting the  shells  which  lay  strewn  in  abundance  along  the 
sandy  shore.  The  usual  way  in  which  the  day  was  passed 
—like  the  whole  traveling  equipage,  entirely  the  arrange- 
ment of  Buckle — was  to  get  up  at  six,  breakfast  while  the 
tents  were  being  struck,  start  a  little  before  eight,  and 
generally  before  the  baggage  camels  were  ready ;  lunch 
generally  about  twelve,  while  still  on  the  march,'  on  a  few 
figs  and  biscuits ;  then  rest  for  about  three  hours  during 
the  hottest  part  of  the  day  wherever  there  was  natural 
shade ;  or,  if  there  were  none,  a  part  of  a  tent  was  pitched. 
Here  Buckle  smoked,  and  talked  to  Mr.  Glennie  for  a 

37  Mr.  Glennie  erroneously  states  that  Buckle  never  again  tried  camel- 
riding  after  that  short  ride  from  'Ain  Musa ;  and  says  that  it  was  owing 
to  his  "stiffness"  that  the  motion  was  so  disagreeable.  "Pilgrim  Mem- 
ories," p.  69.  The  fact  is,  that  the  peculiarity  of  the  camel's  gait  makes  it 
necessary  to  swing  backward  and  forward  with  every  step,  and  this  made 
Buckle  giddy.  He  also  tries  to  draw  a  ludicrous  picture  of  Buckle  mount- 
ing his  donkey — "  one  man  helping  him  up,  another  on  the  other  side  hold- 
ing the  saddle  straight,  and  one  holding  the  animal  in  case  of  fright." 
Ibid.,  p.  70.  Mr.  Glennie  does  not  add  that  this,  apart  from  exaggerations, 
is  the  way  that  he  himself,  and  every  one  else  in  the  East,  mounts.  One 
man  holds  the  stirrup  with  one  hand,  and  the  donkey  with  the  other,  or  it 
would  certainly  start  off ;  while,  if  there  is  a  second  man  near,  or  the  rider 
be  a  man  of  consequence,  he  is  always  helped  up. 


MAJOR  MACDONALD.  413 

time,  and  then  slept ;  while  the  baggage  camels  had  time 
to  come  up,  and  get  a  start  sufficient  to  allow  of  the  camp 
and  dinner  being  nearly  prepared  when  he  aguin  came  up 
to  them,  about  six  o'clock.  Buckle,  who  always  now  rode 
his  Cairene  donkey,  was  independent  of  attending  Arabs 
or  camel-leaders.  Part  of  the  time  he  rode  by  Mr.  Glen- 
nie,  and  talked  to  him ;  and  for  an  hour  to  an  hour  and  a 
half  he  walked,  generally  with  the  boys.  After  dinner, 
which,  like  all  other  meals,  was  in  the  open  air,  he  would 
smoke  and  resume  his  talk.  Then  to  bed  about  nine, 
where  he  lit  a  cigar,  and  read  Jahn's  "  Hebrew  Common- 
wealth," Murray,  Josephus,  or  the  Bible,  for  about  an 
hour  before  he  went  to  sleep. 

The  seventh  day  of  traveling  saw  the  party  up  the 
Nukb  Badereh,  or  Pass  of  the  Sword's  Point,  and  into 
Wady  Maghdrah,  or  the  Yalley  of  the  Cave,  so  called  from 
the  mines,  which,  together  with  many  dwelling-places, 
tanks,  forts,  and  inscriptions,  mark  the  ancient  Egyptian 
copper-mines.  At  that  time  a  Major  Macdonald  was  liv- 
ing there,  who,  as  Buckle  says  in  his  diary,  "  received  us, 
though  strangers  to  him,  with  great  kindness,  persuaded 
us  to  stay  all  day  with  him,  and  gave  us  some  turquoises 
from  the  mines  which  he  had  discovered."  He  invited  the 
party  up  to  his  rough  dwelling,  and  regaled  them  on  hot 
Arab  tortilla — or  flat  cakes  of  dough  baked  on  a  plate  of 
iron — ibex  cutlets,  and  other  novelties.  He  then  showed 
them  the  ancient  mines,  and  gave  them  some  ancient  flint 
arrow-heads,  a  few  small  turquoises,  and  many  of  another 
kind  which  turned  green  after  a  short  time,  or  almost 
white.  These  latter  had  brought  the  Major  into  great 
trouble  at  one  time,  for,  in  his  ignorance,  he  had  sent  both 


414  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

kinds  to  the  European  markets,  and  thereby  brought  the 
mines  into  discredit.  He  had  first  discovered  them  while 
wandering  over  the  hills,  seventeen  years  before,  and  then 
came  and  settled,  where  he  lived  for  sixteen  years,  seeing 
nobody  but  Arabs,  and  yet  had  not  learned  the  language ! 
This  Buckle  spoke  of  afterward  with  some  contempt.  At 
that  time  he  had  a  nephew  staying  with  him,  who  had 
learned  to  make  himself  understood  in  a  few  months. 
The  Major  spoke  of  the  ancient  reservoirs,  and  explained 
how  easily  the  desert  might  be  made  productive  by  simply 
damming  up  some  of  the  torrent-beds,  so  as  to  form  reser- 
voirs. For  the  desert  is  fertile  wherever  irrigated ;  and  the 
rainfall,  though  it  only  lasts  about  a  couple  of  days,  is  some- 
thing tremendous.  When  asked  what  he  would  do  if 
strangers  came  to  work  the  mines,  he  said  that  he  and  the 
Tawarah  Arabs  would  fight  them.  His  system  was  to  find 
the  mining  tools,  and  pay  his  Arabs  a  percentage  on  what 
they  found.  Each  worked  for  himself;  and  whoever 
made  a  lucky  discovery  of  a  good  vein  tried  to  keep  it 
secret,  though  generally  without  success,  as  he  was  soon 
tracked  by  his  fellows.  The  Major  also  talked  of  the  ter- 
rible Arab  vendetta,  and  pointed  out  a  man  whose  life  was 
in  hourly  danger.  This  Arab  was  a  truculent-looking  ruf- 
fian, armed  with  a  heavy  straight  sword,  and  a  gun  some 
twelve  feet  long  slung  across  his  shoulder,  who  had  quar- 
reled with  his  nephew  about  a  case  of  candles  which  had 
been  washed  ashore.  The  nephew  wounded  his  uncle, 
upon  which  the  uncle  slew  his  nephew,  and  was  now  being 
hunted  by  his  nearest  relatives. 

Major  Macdonald  extended  his  hospitality  in  the  kind- 
est way  to  all  comers ;  and  not  long  after  Buckle's  arrival, 


SINAI.  415 

another  caravan  appeared,  with  whom  he  was  destined  to 
travel  during  the  rest  of  the  desert  journey.  They  also 
were  invited  to  dinner,  where  Buckle  was,  a"s  usual,  the 
soul  of  the  party. 

The  following  day  was  a  "  very  fatiguing  "  journey  of 
twelve  hours,  through  Wady  Mukatteb,  to  the  oasis  and 
ruined  Christian  village  of  Wady  Feiran.  Dinner  was 
late,  and  Buckle  exhausted ;  but  he  got  up  as  early  as 
usual  the  next  day  to  examine  the  ruined  houses  and 
church.  That  day's  journey  was  only  six  hours'  duration  ; 
but  according  to  Mr.  Glennie,  he  had  a  long  talk  with  him 
all  day ;  and  the  following  day  he  was  so  tired  that  he 
could  not  talk  at  all,  though  he  walked  from  the  encamp- 
ment to  the  convent  of  Sinai,  and  back  again,  before  dinner. 

The  party  were  admitted  into  the  convent  after  they 
had  presented  the  usual  letter  of  introduction,  during  the 
perusal  of  which  Buckle  expressed  very  unflattering  re- 
marks on  asceticism  generally,  and  the  monks  in  particular.88 
He  did  not  like  the  look  of  the  guest-rooms,  and  preferred 
to  remain  in  his  tent,  the  double  roof  of  which  proved  use- 
ful that  night  in  keeping  out  a  heavy  fall  of  rain.  Gebel 
Musa,  the  Sinai  of  the  monks  and  Arabs,  was  ascended 
the  next  day,  one  third  of  the  way  by  a  road  practicable 
by  camels,  and  the  remaining  two  thirds  on  foot  over  loose 
stones.  On  the  summit  is  a  little  chapel  and  a  mosk — the 
latter  hung  all  over  with  votive  rags,  the  former  beplas- 
tered  with  dirty  prints.  Here  they  rested  a  couple  of 
hours,  had  lunch,  and  a  drink  from  the  cool  and  refreshing 
spring  called  Moses'  Well,  which  Buckle  pronounced  to 
be  the  best  water  he  had  tasted  since  he  left  England. 

38  Glennie,  "Pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  137. 


416  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WBITINGS. 

Then  they  descended  to  the  chapel  of  Elijah  and  Aaron, 
where  the  very  cave  is  shown  in  which  Elijah  lay  hidden. 
In  the  evening  Buckle  and  the  other  travelers,  forming  in 
all  four  parties,  fired  off  their  revolvers  to  try  them ;  but 
Buckle  had  to  seek  advice  from  Mr.  Gray — a  gentleman 
traveling  with  another  party,  to  whom  he  took  a  great 
fancy — how  to  load  his  weapon.  The  next  day  was  spent 
in  seeing  the  convent,  its  church,  pictures,  mosk,  and  li- 
brary, and  also  in  writing  home  : 

"  As  I  know  how  anxious  you  must  be,"  he  says,  "  to 
have  the  latest  possible  news  of  the  desert  travelers,  I  have 
arranged  to  send  a  Bedouin  express  on  a  fleet  dromedary 
this  evening  to  Suez.  He  will  reach  Suez  in  about  three 
days  with  this  letter. 

"  We  are  all  quite  well — very  tired  every  evening,  but 
waking  up  quite  fresh  and  vigorous  every  morning.  Our 
average  day's  journey  is  seven  hours  of  actual  riding,  and 
we  rest  about  three  hours  during  the  day.  I  hope  that 
we  shall  succeed  in  getting  to  Akaba,  then  to  Petra,  and 
from  Petra  through  Hebron  to  Jerusalem. 

"  But  as  there  are  rumors  at  Sinai  of  war  among  the 
tribes,  I  have  sent  a  Bedouin  to  Akaba  to  learn  the  actual 
state  of  things  before  I  venture  to  start ;  and  I  shall  take 
a  similar  precaution  at  Akaba  in  regard  to  Petra.  An 
American  party  leave  here  to-morrow,  without  taking  any 
steps  to  procure  information,  and  much  wish  us  to  go  with 
them.  But  I  do  not  like  to  run  the  risk,  as  with,  I  be- 
lieve, one  exception,  no  one  has  been  to  Petra  during  the 
last  five  years.  I  have  sent  for  the  head  sheik,  Hussein, 
and  if  he  will  accompany  us  with  an  escort,  we  will  go — if 
not,  not.  So,  as  the  Irishman  said,  '  Be  aisy  now.' 


ALONG  THE  SEA-SHORE.  417 

"  I  am  too  tired  to  write  more.  The  excitement  and 
exquisite  interest  of  the  life  we  are  leading  are  indescrib- 
able, but  unfit  me  for  every  other  exertion. 

"  Our  encampment  here  is  5,500  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea — the  mid-day  sun  intensely  hot,  but  the  morn- 
ings bitterly  cold." 

This  was  written  on  the  17th  March,  a  day  of  rest  be- 
fore resuming  the  journey ;  but,  though  unwilling  to  write, 
Buckle  was  in  excellent  spirits,  for,  in  a  letter  written 
home  at  the  same  time,  one  of  the  boys  says,  "  You  must 

excuse  mistakes,  because  Mr.  B will  sing  ri-too-rall- 

loo-rall-loo."  Indeed  it  was  not  until  the  latter  part  of  the 
journey,  when  his  last  illness  was  already  upon  him,  that 
his  high  spirits  and  constant  flow  of  fun  ever  did  fail. 

The  next  day — and  before,  of  course,  the  messenger 
had  returned  from  Akaba — a  late  start  was  made,  because, 
having  fresh  camels,  the  burdens  had  to  be  redistributed. 
The  route  lay  for  the  most  part  along  the  sea-shore.  It  was 
here,  as  Buckle  looked  across  the  deep  blue  sea  of  Akaba 
to  the  many-tinted  mountains  of  the  opposite  shore,  that 
he  again  burst  out  with  the  conviction,  already  expressed 
in  Egypt,  that  the  beauty  of  color  was  superior  to  form ; 
and  felt,  what  before  he  had  little  more  than  reasoned,  how 
great  was  the  stimulus  of  natural  beauty  to  the  imagina- 
tion. "With  the  aid  of  the  boys  he  collected  many  shells, 
and  specimens  of  red  and  white  coral ;  and,  as  an  instance 
of  his  method  of  education,  I  may  here  mention  that  the 
boys  one  day  at  dinner  told  him  how  they  had  been  amus- 
ing themselves  by  knocking  off  the  tails  of  lizards,  to 
see  how  these  jumped,  while  the  lizards  ran  away  as  if  no- 
ting had  happened.  Mr.  Glennie  remarked  that  it  was 
27 


418  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

very  cruel,  and  ought  to  be  put  a  stop  to ;  but  Buckle 
quietly  said  that  it  was  the  nature  of  boys  to  be  cruel,  and 
that  they  would  know  better  when  they  grew  older.  The 
consequence  was  that  they,  who  had  resented  Mr.  Glennie's 
remarks,  and  would  probably  not  have  attended  to  an  order, 
were  ashamed  of  what  they  had  done,  and  did  so  no  more. 
The  only  adventure  on  the  march,  which  lasted  five  days, 
was  one  that  Mr.  Glennie  relates,  that  Buckle  only  just 
escaped  the  spring  of  -a  cobra,  which  had  been  disturbed 
by  his  donkey,  and,  after  his  fashion,  gave  the  incident  a 
ridiculous  turn  by  jokingly  inveighing  against  the  blind- 
ness of  fate,  through  which  the  career  of  a  great  philoso- 
pher might  have  been  cut  short  by  the  merest  accident  or 
the  most  contemptible  agent.89 

On  the  sixth  day  there  was  a  halt  for  the  return  of  the 
messenger,  and  the  next  saw  them  encamped  amid  the 
palm-groves  of  Akaba,  hard  by  the  old  square  castle,  and 
in  company  with  three  other  parties,  two  American  and 
one  English. 

From  Tuesday  to  Saturday  the  tents  remained  pitched, 
while  the  principals  of  each  party  were  negotiating  with 
Sheik  Mohammed  for  protection  and  an  escort  to  Petra. 
For  some  time  the  'Alawin  had  been  waging  war  with  the 
Fellahin  of  that  place,  and  consequently  for  the  last  five 
years  the  whole  neighborhood  had  been  in  so  unsettled  a 
state  that  no  travelers  could  venture  into  it.  The  last 
party  had  been  attacked,  one  person  killed,  and  another 
died  of  fright.  Now,  however,  the  'Alawin  had  to  a  cer- 

39  Glennie,  "  Pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  174.  Mr.  Glennie,  with  surprising 
naivete,  relates  this  as  having  been  said  in  sober  earnest.  But,  then,  Mr. 
Glennie  was  in  the  habit  of  taking  jokes  in  this  way. 


THREE  CLERGYMEN.  419 

tain  extent  gained  the  mastery,  and  the  Fellahin  were  a 
kind  of  powerful  feudatories — entitled  to  a  share  of  the 
backsheesh  indeed,  but  unable  to  oppose  the  entry  of  trav- 
elers who  enjoyed  the  protection  of  the  powerful  Sheik 
of  the  'Allawin. 

There  was  plenty  of  leisure  for  conversation  while  the 
negotiations  were  going  on,  and  Buckle  particularly  talked 
to  Mr.  Gray,  who  writes  as  follows : 

"  Notwithstanding  Mr.  Buckle's  anti- Christian  opinions, 
one  would  have  thought  that  in  the  desert  at  least  our  fel- 
low travelers  would  have  availed  themselves  of  the  oppor- , 
tunity  afforded  them  of  studying  such  a  man  as  Mr.  Buckle. 
Yet  all,  with  the  exception  of  Mr.  Glennie — himself  a  free- 
thinker— and  myself,  kept  out  of  his  way.  During  many 
years'  wanderings  throughout  the  world,  I  have  never  met 
any  one  whose  general  knowledge  or  conversational  power 
could  be  compared  for  a  moment  with  that  of  Buckle : 
whether  in  botanizing  up  Sinai,  or  geologizing  at  Petra,  in 
astronomy,  medicine,  chemistry,  theology,  or  languages — 
every  thing  and  every  subject  appeared  to  me  handled  as 
if  by  a  professional.  And  yet,  however  much  one  dif- 
fered from  him,  his  kindly  mode  of  reasoning  with  me 
against  what  he  believed  to  be  erroneous  views  was  always 
so  pleasant  and  fascinating  that  I  could  not  resist  return- 
ing again  and  again  to  his  arguments. 

"  Singularly  enough,  there  were  three  clergymen  in  the 
combined  parties — a  Church  of  England,  a  German  Luther- 
an, and  an  American  Baptist ;  and  I  remember,  because  it 
struck  me  very  forcibly,  that  one  day,  when  the  German 
was  defending  some  point  of  religious  doctrine,  Buckle 
pointed  out  that  he  had  omitted  one  or  two  stronger  argu- 


420  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

merits  in  his  favor,  which  he  proceeded  to  give.  It  was 
quite  evident  to  me  that  few  priests  or  parsons  existed 
who  were  qualified  to  defend  their  respective  creeds  bet- 
ter than  was  Mr.  Buckle  himself  any  one  of  them.  I  took 
an  early  opportunity  of  letting  Mr.  Buckle  know  that, 
both  as  a  Scotchman  and  a  Catholic,  I  had  read  with  much 
interest  his  account  of  Presbyterianism,  adding  that,  as 
Catholics  were  accustomed  to  stripes,  his  castigation  of 
Catholicism  also  was  only  one  of  many  wounds  inflicted 
upon  us ;  whereas  even  royalty  coquetted  with  the  former 
in  Scotland,  and  Presbyterians  were  astounded  at  his  pre- 
suming to  lecture  them  for  their  misdoings.  Mr.  Buckle 
said  that  it  was  satisfactory  to  him  to  know  that,  among 
other  leading  Scotchmen,  the  editor  of  the  '  Scotsman,'  the 
late  Mr.  Kussell,  had  welcomed  his  book  as  a  boon  to  Scot- 
land. While  on  the  subject  of  Scotch  intolerance,  I  re- 
member asking  Mr.  Buckle  whether,  were  he  living  in 
Scotland,  he  would  expect  to  be  most  repugnant  to  the 
Presbyterians  as  a  Deist  or  a  Catholic  ?  He  replied  at  once 
that  he  had  no  doubt  he  would  be  least  objectionable  to 
them  as  a  Deist.  My  asking  him  one  day  what  in  his 
opinion  were  the  strong  and  what  the  weak  points  of 
Catholicism  and  of  Protestantism,  led  up  to  the  following, 
to  me,  memorable  remarks :  *  I  understand  that  the  Catho- 
lic Church  is  making  great  progress  in  America ;  but  it 
must  do  so,  for  what  has  it  to  contend  against  there  ?  Only 
Protestantism,  which  is  inconsistency  itself.  I,  too,  was 
brought  up  a  Protestant,'  he  continued,  '  and  was  taught 
to  regard  my  private  judgment  as  my  birthright,  of  which 
no  one  could  rob  me.  But  when,  in  making  use  of  my 
private  judgment,  I  was  led  to  reject  Christianity,  an  out- 


HIS  OPINION  OF  THE  SUEZ  CANAL.  421 

cry  was  at  once  raised  against  me  for  exercising  this  very 
undoubted  right.'  Then,  turning  toward  me,  he  said : 
6  Your  Church  at  least  is  consistent,  for  it  does:rnot  profess 
to  allow  the  right  of  private  judgment.  But  then  it  starts 
from  false  premises,  for  it  assumes  that  Christ  was  the  Son 
of  God.  Prove  to  me  that  Christ  was  the  Son  of  God, 
and  I,  too,  at  once  become  a  Catholic.' 40 

"  Among  his  miscellaneous  remarks  I  remember  that, 
in  a  conversation  on  articles  in  the  '  Times '  and  other  lead- 
ing English  papers,  he  said  it  was  very  easy  for  a  man  to 
sit  behind  his  desk  and  write  an  article ;  but  he  found 
from  experience  that  these  writers  seldom  cared  to  discuss 
verbally  the  subject  of  their  articles.  "When  speaking  of 
various  authors,  he  occasionally  added  that  a  few  years 
hence  their  works  would  be  forgotten.  A  book  that  would 
not  descend  to  posterity  was  evidently  one  for  which  he 
had  but  scant  respect.  With  mighty  captains  he  had  no 
sympathy.  Napoleon,  in  his  eyes,  was  simply  a  curse  to 
civilization.  He  did  not  believe  in  humane  generals,  and 
was  much  interested  in  some  anecdotes  I  told  him  of  what 
I  had  seen  while  serving  as  a  volunteer  in  the  Indian  Mu- 
tiny. On  the  subject  of  the  Suez  Canal,  he  believed  that 
the  canal  would  be  made  in  spite  of  British  opposition,  and 
insisted  that  Palmerston  had  asked  Stephenson  to  put  all 
the  difficulties  in  the  strongest  light,  in  order  to  prejudice 
English  public  opinion."  41 

40 1  give  this  in  Mr.  Gray's  words,  and  he  adds :  "  These  words  made  so  great 
an  impression  upon  me  at  the  time  that  I  took  the  first  opportunity  of  repeat- 
ing them  to  Mr.  Glennie,  who  acquiesced  perfectly  in  Buckle's  avowal."  But 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  last  word  ought  to  be  Christian,  as  it  is  difficult  to 
understand  how  all  the  doctrines  of  Catholicism  could  be  deduced  from  this. 

41  From  notes  kindly  communicated  to  me  by  Mr.  Alexander  Hill  Gray, 
of  East  Ferry,  Dunkeld,  N.  B. 


422  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

After  several  tedious  interviews  with  the  sheiks,  who 
at  first  agreed,  then  threw  difficulties  in  the  way,  and 
finally  agreed  again,  a  start  was  made  on  March  30th, 
with  a  new  escort  of  wild  'Alawin  in  place  of  the  gentle 
Tawarah  Arabs,  accompanied  by  the  great  sheik  himself 
on  the  first  day's  journey,  and  then  by  his  uncle.  The 
party  was  now  a  large  and  powerful  caravan,  consisting, 
with  the  servants  and  escort,  of  110  well-armed  men.  To 
prevent  undue  straggling,  the  mid-day  rest  was  curtailed  to 
one  hour.  On  the  first  day  a  halt  was  called,  as  more  dif- 
ficulties were  advanced  by  the  tiresome  chiefs.  They  pro- 
fessed to  have  discovered  some  new  danger,  which  it 
would  be  necessary  to  meet  by  more  backsheesh.  "  I  gave 
it  as  my  opinion,"  says  Mr.  Gray,  "  that  the  fellows,  know- 
ing how  anxious  we  were  to  reach  Petra,  were  simply  en- 
deavoring to  extort  money  from  us  under  false  pretenses. 
Mr.  Buckle,  anti-Christian  though  he  was  in  belief,  chid 
me  for  want  of  charity.  I  enjoyed  the  reproof,  but  felt  all 
the  same  that,  however  learned  a  man  might  be  in  Europe, 
it  was  quite  possible  he  might  be  easily  fooled  in  Asia ; 
and  I  was  therefore  very  glad,  when  night  came  on,  to 
rouse  Mr.  Buckle  with  the  latest  news  after  he  had  retired 
to  rest.  The  news  was  simply  this :  Abd-el-atee,  the  lead- 
ing dragoman  of  the  united  party,42  had  suggested  to  the 
sheik  that  he  should  demand  more  money  all  round,  which 

42  Still  a  well-known  man  at  Cairo.  "What  did  his  party  say  of  Buckle 
before  him  ?  Mr.  Warner,  whom  he  afterward  served,  says  he  referred  to 
Buckle  as  follows :  "  You  no  think  the  Lord  he  take  care  for  his  own  ?  .  .  . 
When  the  kin'  of  Abyssinia,  who  not  believe,  what  you  call  infidel,  like  that 
Englishman,  yes,  Mr.  Buckle ;  I  see  him  in  Sinai  and  Petra — very  wise  man, 
know  a  great  deal,  very  nice  gentleman,  I  like  him  very  much,  but  I  think 
he  not  believe."—"  Mummies  and  Moslems,"  pp.  318,  319.  London,  1876. 


£ 


"tJe*-*  "  ~r*- 
>>    0*  THF, 


T 
ASCENSION  OF  MOUNT  HOR.    ^    ^      423 

money  he  and  the  sheik  were  to  divide  between 
dragoman  had  no  objection  to  the  arrangement,  provided 
that  he  obtained  his  share  of  what  his  masters^paid.  To 
this  proposal  Abd-el-atee  would  not  consent,  and  Hassan, 
turning  traitor,  first  came  to  tell  me  that  he  had  overheard 
my  conversation  with  Mr.  Buckle,  and  assured  me  that 
my  suspicions  were  correct.  Mr.  Buckle  never  lectured 
me  again  upon  want  of  charity."  Buckle's  worthy  cook, 
however,  who  was  no  Rustam,  was  so  frightened  by  stories 
of  the  ferocious  Fellahin,  and  particularly  of  his  last  pred- 
ecessor at  Petra,  five  years  since,  who  had  been  shot,  that 
he  swore  the  triple  oath  of  divorce  nothing  should  induce 
him  to  stir  a  step  forward.  The  dragoman  came  in  much 
perplexity  to  tell  Buckle  of  this ;  for  the  triple  oath  is  ir- 
revocable, and  the  man  who  divorces  his  wife  in  this  way 
may  not  marry  her  again  till  some  one  else  has  married 
and  divorced  her.49  Buckle  called  the  man  before  him, 
and,  pointing  out  that  he  was  bound  by  his  contract,  gave 
him  the  choice  whether  he  would  go  on,  or  return  to  a 
consular  prison.  The  cook  became  a  bachelor. 

In  the  course  of  the  next  day,  and  after  much  talk,  an 
agreement  was  arrived  at,  and  the  party  began  their  march 
again  April  4th.  On  the  way  Mount  Hor  was  ascended. 
Buckle  got  up  in  an  hour  and  a  half,  tired  and  hot,  and 
rubbing  his  bald  head,  exclaimed,  "  No  wonder  poor  old 
Aaron  died  when  they  dragged  him  up  here ! "  Even  the 
clericals  laughed  at  this  unholy  remark.  But  the  view 

43  yery  ugly  men  are  chosen  for  this  purpose  by  repentant  husbands. 
They  sometimes,  however,  refuse  to  divorce  the  woman  for  her  former  hus- 
band to  remarry  her ;  and  they  can  not  be  compelled.  Compare  the  story 
of  'Ala  ed-Deen  Abu-sh-Shamat.  Lane,  1840,  vol.  ii.,  p.  274 ;  and  Ibid., 
"  Modern  Egyptians,"  1842,  vol.  i.,  p  262,  et  seq. 


424  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WETTINGS. 

from  the  summit  over  the  neighboring  peaks  was  worth  all 
the  fatigue,  and  reminded  one — in  its  vast  expanse,  and 
the  absence  of  all  vegetation  but  a  little  straggling  grass  or 
insignificant  bush  or  stunted  tree — of  a  raised  map  spread 
before  one's  feet.  Once  at  the  top,  an  extra  backsheesh 
was  demanded  for  permission  to  see  Aaron's  tomb,  and  re- 
fused by  the  indignant  travelers,  who  did  not  care  much 
to  see  it.  The  descent  was  done  in  an  hour,  though 
Buckle  was  forced  to  draw  his  revolver  on  his  attendant 
savages,  who  kept  pushing  him  to  make  him  go  at  what 
they  considered  a  suitable  rate  of  speed. 

That  afternoon  the  tents  were  pitched  in  Petra.  In 
the  evening  the  whole  party  had  a  narrow  escape.  There 
was  a  quarrel  between  the  sheiks,  as  they  sat  round  their 
camp-fire,  on  the  division  of  the  spoil.  The  sheik  of  the 
Fellahin  drew  his  sword,  and  was  on  the  point  of  killing 
the  sheik  of  the  'Alawin,  who  was  unprepared,  when  the 
blow  was  turned  aside  by  a  bystander ;  and  the  angry  Fel- 
lahin chief  went  off  in  a  huff,  promising  that  as  he  "  had 
the  pigeons  in  his  cage,  he  would  not  let  them  go  "  ;  and 
intimating  that  he  would  occupy  the  heights,  and  attack 
the  party  when  they  attempted  to  leave.  However,  the 
next  day  Buckle  and  some  of  the  others  began  their  sight- 
seeing by  the  pass  of  the  Sik,  a  narrow  rocky  passage,  the 
principal,  and  probably,  in  ancient  times,  only,  entrance  to 
Petra.  They  had  hardly  got  half  way  when  the  dragoman 
told  them  it  was  dangerous  to  go  on  ;  that  the  sheik  had 
heard  the  Fellahin  were  in  ambush  ahead,  and  they  must 
return  at  once.  Buckle  quietly  asked  who  was  the  mes- 
senger, and  he  was  pointed  out.  "  Then,"  said  he,  "  I 
will  go  back ;  but  I  shall  take  you  before  the  sheik,  and 


BUCKLE  ANGRY  WITH  ME.   GRAY.  425 

ask  him  if  your  story  is  true ;  and  if  it  be  not,  you  shall 
be  punished."  Upon  this  the  man  began  equivocating, 
saying  that  he  had  not  been  sent  by  the  sheik,  but  thought 
it  extremely  likely  that  the  Fellahin  might  be  there,  etc. ; 
and  it  became  at  once  clear  that  he  had  invented  the  story 
merely  to  save  himself  the  trouble  of  escorting  the  travel- 
ers about  the  place.  On  their  return  they  found  poor 
Achmet,  the  cook,  the  center  of  a  group  of  Fellahin,  who 
had  found  out  his  cowardice,  and  were  demanding  sugar, 
tobacco,  and  everything  they  had  a  fancy  to.  They  pointed 
out  to  him  the  individual  who  had  slain  the  cook  of  the 
last  party,  and  chaffed  him  unmercifully. 

The  only  time  that  Buckle  was  angry  with  Mr.  Gray 
was  at  Petra.  "  Finding  a  snake,"  writes  this  gentleman, 
"  I  killed  it,  and  brought  it  to  the  door  of  Mr.  Buckle's 
tent.  '  Take  that  away  from  here,  if  you  please,'  said  he ; 
but  I  enjoyed  his  discomfiture  too  much  to  obey  him  at 
once.  He  was  at  first  angry,  but  quickly  recovered  his 
temper,  merely  remarking  that  the  mate  of  the  dead  snake 
would  certainly  take  up  its  abode  near  his  tent  if  the  body 
was  allowed  to  remain  there.  "When  the  Fellahin  at  Pe- 
tra were  becoming  troublesome,"  continues  Mr.  Gray, 
"  Mr.  Buckle  remarked,  that '  if  they  came  to  his  tent  with 
guns  he  would  probably  get  under  the  bed ;  but  if  they 
wished  to  discuss  matters  quietly  with  him,  to  prove  he 
had  no  right  to  be  there,  he  would  be  happy  to  offer  the 
chief  a  chair.' " 

One  more  day  was  passed  in  Petra ;  and  then  on  the 
Monday  the  caravan  slowly  defiled  out  on  the  road  to 
Hebron,  with  a  somewhat  uncomfortable  feeling  that  the 
sheik  of  the  Fellahin,  with  his  rude  and  devoted  follow- 


426  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

ers,  might  be  occupying  the  heights  and  prepared  to  at- 
tack. But  the  presence  of  the  powerful  Bedouin  sheik 
proved  a  sufficient  safeguard,  and  they  passed  out  in  peace. 
The  journey  to  Hebron  was  uneventful.  Every  evening, 
almost,  the  escort  wasted  their  powder  to  warn  off  rob- 
bers; and  sang  to  show  their  numbers.  JSTearly  every 
day  they  managed  to  get  an  alarm  of  a  Bedouin  attack ; 
and  once  very  nearly  had  a  real  affray  with  the  Tiyahah, 
near  Hebron,  who  wished  the  travelers  to  dismiss  the 
'Alawin,  and  take  their  camels  instead.  But  the  demand 
was  peaceably  resisted;  and  in  a  few  hours  more  they 
were  safely  encamped  at  Hebron. 

The  Prince  of  Wales,  who  had  been  making  the  tour 
of  Egypt,  and  thence  gone  directly  by  sea  to  Palestine, 
had  succeeded  in  getting  into  the  mosk  which  covers  the 
supposed  tomb  of  Abraham  at  this  place.  He  had  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  the  authorities  that,  since  Christians  had 
once  been  allowed  to  enter  it,  they  might  in  future  always 
be  allowed  to  do  so ;  but  the  wish  was  expressed  in  vain. 
There  was  nothing  to  see,  therefore,  but  the  outside.  The 
Arabs  were  dismissed,  for  the  desert  was  now  passed. 
Horses  were  substituted  for  camels,  and  all  enjoyed  a  gal- 
lop for  the  first  time,  with  the  exception  of  Buckle,  who, 
indeed,  for  the  last  two  or  three  days  had  been  riding  on 
one  of  the  sheik's  horses,  as  his  own  donkey  had  cast  a 
shoe. 

From  Hebron  to  Jerusalem  is  only  one  day's  travel. 
Buckle  started  at  nine,  taking  Bethlehem  on  the  way, 
walking  two  hours,  resting  half  an  hour,  and  entering 
Jerusalem  by  the  Jaffa  gate  at  half -past  four.  Here  he 
went  to  Hauser's  Mediterranean  Hotel,  as  it  was  more 


JERUSALEM.  427 

convenient  than  camping  outside  the  town.     On  the  16th 
of  April,  he  writes  as  follows : 

"  We  arrived  here  three  days  ago,  after  a  laost  fatigu- 
ing and  arduous  journey  through  the  whole  desert  of  Sinai 
and  of  Edom.  "We  have  traversed  a  deeply  interesting 
country,  visited  by  few  Europeans — and  by  none  during 
the  last  five  years,  so  dangerous  was  the  latter  part  of  the 
journey  reputed  to  be.  But  I  had  taken  my  measures 
before  venturing  to  go  beyond  Sinai,  and  gradually  feeling 
my  way,  secured,  as  I  went  on,  the  protection  of  every 
leading  sheik,  having  studied  at  Cairo  their  relative  power 
and  position.  Having  an  ample  stock  of  provisions,  I  was 
prepared  at  any  moment  to  fall  back,  and  return  if  need 
be  to  Egypt.  Three  other  parties,  chiefly  Americans, 
joined  us  at  Sinai,  each  having  their  separate  establish- 
ment arranged,  with  their  own  dragoman,  but  all,  for 
greater  safety,  keeping  together  till  we  reached  Hebron. 
"We  were  in  all  fifteen  persons,  and  with  our  servants  and 
escort  we  numbered  one  hundred  and  ten  armed  men. 
Nothing  but  a  combination  of  tribes  could  hurt  us ;  and 
such  a  combination  I  considered  to  be  morally  impossible 
in  the  face  of  the  precautions  which  I  suggested,  and  to 
which,  after  some  demur,  the  other  parties  agreed.  "When 
I  say  £  morally  impossible,'  I  mean  the  odds  were  so  large 
as  not  to  be  worth  the  consideration  of  a  prudent  man. 
There  were  several  alarms,  and  there  was  undoubted  dan- 
ger ;  but  in  my  deliberate  judgment  the  danger  was  not 
greater  than  would  be  encountered  in  a  rough  sea  with  a 
good  vessel  and  a  skillful  captain.  Some  of  our  fellow 
travelers  were  in  great  fear  two  or  three  times,  and  as- 
sured me  that  they  had  no  sleep  on  those  occasions.  For 


428  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

ray  own  part,  I  never  was  kept  awake  ten  minutes.  The 
boys  behaved  exceedingly  well.44  ...  I  told  them  always 
to  keep  close  to  me  in  the  caravan ;  they  always  slept  in 
my  tent ;  and,  without  concealing  from  them  the  real  state 
of  affairs,  I  simply  assured  them  that  whatever  happened 
to  them  should  also  happen  to  me.  They  believed  me. 
They  were  satisfied  that  I  meant  what  I  said ;  and  I  am 
more  than  repaid  by  their  confidence  and  affection. 

"  The  result  is  that  we  have  seen  Petra — as  wonderful 
and  far  more  beautiful  than  anything  in  Egypt.  Burk- 
hardt,  about  forty  years  ago,  was  the  first  European  who 
ever  set  foot  there ;  and  since  then,  not  more  probably  than 
100  persons  have  seen  it ;  that  is  to  say,  have  really  seen 
it  as  we  did,  at  leisure,  and  spending  three  whole  days 
there.  Occasionally  gentlemen  without  tents,  and  with  no 
food  but  what  they  can  carry  on  their  own  horse,  gallop 
from  Hebron  to  Petra  (about  120  miles)  in  two  days  and  a 
half,  reaching  Petra  in  the  evening,  seeing  it  by  moonlight, 
and  then  gallop  back,  before  the  Bedouins  and  Fellahin  are 
aware  of  their  presence.  The  English  and  other  consuls, 
and  the  Governor  of  Cairo  with  other  persons  of  influence, 
all  declared  that  this  was  the  only  way  I  could  see  Petra ; 
but  the  hardship  of  the  journey,  and  the  risk  of  sleeping 
in  the  open  air,  prevented  me  from  thinking  for  a  moment 
of  such  a  plan.  Among  the  English  here  our  journey  has 
created  quite  a  sensation ;  and  the  result  is  one  of  many 

44  Being  one  of  the  boys  mentioned,  I  may  as  well  state,  both  for  my 
brother  and  myself,  that  we  had  such  entire  and  perfect  faith  in  Buckle 
that  seeing  he  appeared  under  no  apprehension  we  believed  the  danger  ex- 
tremely remote,  and  were  unconcerned  accordingly.  Mr.  Glennie  also  was 
one  of  the  least  alarmed ;  but  on  his  laughing  at  a  gentleman  of  another 
party,  Buckle  reproved  him,  and  said  it  was  extremely  natural,  as  the  man 
had  heart-disease. 


PASSAGE  THROUGH  PETRA.  429 

proofs  which  have  convinced  me  of  the  profound  ignorance 
of  officials  in  the  East  of  everything  which  their  own  eyes 
do  not  see.  I  had  to  collect  all  my  facts  through  an  inter- 
preter, but  I  analyzed  and  compared  them  with  something 
more  than  official  care  and  precision.  Having  done  so,  I 
acted ;  and  I  really  look  back  to  this  passage  through  Petra 
from  Egypt  as  by  far  the  greatest  practical  achievement  of 
my  life.  I  believe  that  you  are  both  laughing,  and  I  am 
almost  inclined  to  laugh  myself.  But  I  am  conceited  about 
it,  and  I  think  I  have  reason  to  be  so ;  for  I  must,  more- 
over, tell  you  that  nearly  all  our  party  were  more  or  less 
ill  with  fatigue,  anxiety,  and  the  extraordinary  vicissitudes 
of  temperature.  At  3.30  P.  M.  the  heat  was  on  one  oc- 
casion 119°  Fahr.,  and  before  sunrise  the  next  morning 
the  thermometer  had  fallen  in  the  tent  (and  our  tent  was 
by  far  the  thickest  and  warmest  of  all)  to  42°.  Headaches, 
sickness,  bleeding  at  the  nose,  and  bowel  complaints  were 
very  common ;  but  we  three  had  not  even  the  pain  or  in- 
convenience of  any  kind,  except  that.  .  .  .  The  dear  little 
kids  are  now  the  picture  of  health,  and  we  are  all  as  brown 
as  Arabs.  .  .  . 

"  The  truth  is  that  we  were  the  only  ones  who  had 
proper  food  and  were  properly  clothed.  "We  had  plenty  of 
green  vegetables  preserved ;  also  preserved  meats  of  every 
kind,  and  excellent  preserved  Julien  soup ;  while  others, 
day  after  day,  lived  upon  fowls,  tasteless  mutton,  and  hard 
biscuits.  They  also,  in  spite  of  my  warning,  committed 
the  enormous  but  very  tempting  mistake  of  wearing  sum- 
mer clothes  in  hot  weather.  On  the  other  hand,  I  and  the 
boys  had  on  complete  winter  clothing,  which  was  never  to 
be  changed  till  going  to  bed,  when  I  always  saw  myself  that 


430  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

the  boys  had  two  good  blankets  over  them,  however  warm 
they  might  be.  Poor  -  -  often  complained  of  the  heat 
when  he  went  to  bed ;  but  I  was  inflexible  as  to  the  blank- 
ets, being  satisfied  that  a  free  and  constant  action  of  the  skin 
is  the  only  safety-valve  in  this  dangerous  climate.  Others 
thought  differently,  and,  strong  and  vigorous  young  men 
as  most  of  them  were,  they  fared  differently — being  con- 
stantly unwell,  and  always  ascribing  their  complaints  to 
the  wrong  cause. 

46 

"  I  am  truly  sorry  to  hear  of  poor  CapePs  illness,  though 
I  am  not  much  surprised,  since  for  the  last  few  years  I 
have  not  been  satisfied  with  his  condition.  His  restless- 
ness and  irritability  are,  I  fear,  the  result  of  disease.  Poor 
fellow !  it  is  sad  under  any  circumstances  to  feel  the  brains 
impaired ;  but  how  infinitely  sad  when  there  is  nothing  to 
compensate  the  mischief — nothing,  if  I  may  so  say,  to  jus- 
tify it.48  I  shall  write  to  him  to-day,  and  do  what  I  can 
to  soothe  him.47 

"  It  is  not  quite  certain  that  we  shall  go  to  Constanti- 
nople, because  I  have  to  ascertain  the  character  of  the 
steamer  to  Pesth,  and  the  healthiness  of  the  Danube, 
which  is  at  times  visited  by  malaria — though,  I  am  at 
present  informed,  this  is  only  in  autumn.  At  all  events, 
you  shall  have  the  two  or  three  weeks'  notice  which  you 

45  Only  about  the  postal  arrangements. 

46 "  What  booteth  it  to  have  been  rich  alive  ? 
What  to  be  great  ?  what  to  be  gracious  ? 
When  after  death  no  token  doth  survive 
Of  former  being  in  this  mortall  hous, 
But  sleepes  in  dust  dead  and  inglorious." 

SPENSEK,  "  The  Ruins  of  Time,"  11.  351-355. 
41  This  letter  I  have  not  been  able  to  find. 


HIS  THOUGHTFUL  KINDNESS.  431 

require  of  our  time  for  being  in  Yienna ;  and  as  you  say 
that  with  this  notice  you  can  both  of  you  arrange  to  be 
there  at  any  time,  this  prevents  all  difficulty,  and  leaves 
me  free  to  act.  In  case  of  my  being  in  Germany  before  I 
can  give  you  due  notice,  I  wish  you  would  tell  me  if  there 
is  any  healthy,  and  not  too  dull,  watering-place  between 
Pesth  and  Yienna,  or  thereabouts,  where  we  could  remain 
while  awaiting  your  arrival  at  Yienna.  It  will  not  be  ad- 
visable that  the  boys  should  stay  two  or  three  weeks  in  a 
hot  and  crowded  city.  Besides,  I  want  to  get  them  on  in 
German,  and  it  will  be  quite  time  enough  to  visit  their 
relations  after  your  arrival. 

"  Thanks  for  offering  to  bring  the  '  Mill  on  the  Floss ' 
for  me  to  read ;  but  you  could  not  do  so  without  buying 
it,  and  it  is  not  worth  while  to  do  that.  So,  unless  you 
have  it  already,  or  can  borrow  it,  I  should  much  prefer 
waiting,  and  reading  it  in  London.  But  I  want  one  or 
two  books  bought  for  my  little  boys.  I  want  Newman's 
'  Hebrew  Monarchy '  (published,  I  think,  by  Chapman 
anonymously,  but  always  ascribed  to  Frank  Newman), 
and  the  <  Dictionary  of  the  Bible '  (or  some  such  title), 
lately  edited  by  Dr.  William  Smith,  on  the  same  plan  as 
Smith's  i  Dictionary  of  Geography  and  Mythology  ' ;  also 
ask  Capel  for  the  loan  of  Carpenter's  ( Physiology.'  This 

is  for ,  but  as  I  am  not  quite  certain  whether  he  can 

yet  enter  into  it,  I  would  rather  not  have  it  bought  for 
him,  especially  as  I  can  lend  it  to  him  in  town,  and  it  is 
an  expensive  book.  Therefore,  if  you  can  not  borrow  it, 
do  not  bring  it.  Carpenter's  f  Human  Physiology,'  or  his 
'  General  Physiology ' — either  would  do.  Finally,  for 
myself,  please  to  bring  some  of  Schiller's  poems,  or  of  the 


432  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

minor  poems  of  Goethe,  whichever  you  have ;  or  any  other 
German  poetry  which  is  good,  and  which  you  have  al- 
ready by  you,  and  will  not  take  up  too  much  room. 

"  I  have  so  much  to  see  and  to  do,  that  I  can  not  an- 
swer several  questions  in  your  letter,  as  I  would  other- 
wise. But  I  must  tell  you  that  I  am  far  stronger  both  in 
mind  and  body  than  I  have  been  since  you  knew  me,  and 
I  feel  fit  to  go  on  at  once  with  my  work.  But  I  neither 
read  nor  write.  I  think ;  I  see ;  and  I  talk.  Especially 
I  study  the  state  of  society  and  habits  of  the  people.  "We 
shall  stay  here  to  the  end  of  this  week,  and  then  go  to 
Jericho,  the  Jordan,  Dead  Sea,  and  Bethlehem,  and  thence 
northward  for  Nazareth,  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  Damascus, 
Baalbec,  etc.  I  feel  boyish  enough  for  anything,  and 
fancy  myself  growing  younger  ;  yet  I  am  old,  very  old- 
forty  on  the  24th  of  last  November.  It's  a  great  age." 

The  day  after  his  arrival,  Buckle  looked  out  for  a 
house  to  lodge  in,  for  the  weather  was  too  wet  to  make 
tent-life  pleasant,  and  the  hotel  was  bad,  and  its  cookery 
worse.  He  was,  however,  unsuccessful  in  his  search,  and 
consequently  remained  at  the  hotel  during  the  whole  of 
his  stay  at  Jerusalem.  To  his  stay  here  may  fairly  be 
ascribed  the  fever  he  caught,  and  finally  died  of.  His 
time  he  spent  in  seeing  all  that  was  to  be  seen.  Of  an- 
cient Jerusalem  there  was  then  but  little  visible,  and  hence 
the  greatest  part  of  his  time  was  devoted  to  what  are  sup- 
posed by  some  of  the  more  devout  to  be  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre and  other  holy  places,  excursions,  the  Garden  of 
Gethsemane,  the  lepers'  quarter,  and  the  bazaars.  Here 
Mr.  Longmore  met  him  again,  but  though  he  regularly 
saw  him  at  table  tfhdte,  he  unfortunately  kept  but  little 


VISIT  TO   CHURCH  OF  THE  HOLY  SEPULOHEE.    433 

record  of  his  conversation.  "  I  accompanied  him  to  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,"  says  this  gentleman,  "  and 
assisted  him  in  buying  a  number  of  rosaries,  naade  of  the 
fruit  of  the  Doum  palm ;  crosses,  seals,,  paper-cutters,  and 
such  like  articles,  made  from  wood  of  Mount  Olivet,  of- 
fered for  sale  in  the  square  before  the  church ;  in  all  of 
which  he  showed  more  interest  than  I  should  have  antici- 
pated.48 Next  day,  at  dinner,  he  said  he  received  a  letter, 

48  "  Athenaeum,"  25th  January,  1873,  p.  115.  Buckle  came  home  one 
day  smiling,  and  in  reply  to  a  question  said,  rubbing  his  hands,  he  had 
every  reason  to  feel  elated,  as  he  had  just  beaten  a  Jew  down  a  halfpenny ! 
in  bargaining  for  some  knickknacks  of  this  sort.  Mr.  Glennie  relates  this 
as  follows  :  "  Once  when  he  had  lagged  behind,  near  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  as  we  were  on  our  way  by  the  Via  Dolorosa,  and  St.  Stephen's 
Gate,  to  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane,  he  came  up  apologizing  for  having  kept 
me  waiting,  but  elated  with  having,  in  bargaining  with  a  Jew  about  some 
glass  bracelets,  beat  him  down  from  twopence  to  three-halfpence ;  and  as 
the  Jew  was  always  cheating  in  the  court  of  the  Church,  even  as  his  fore- 
fathers in  that  of  the  Temple,  I  could  not  refrain  from  saying  that,  '  while 
going  to  Gethsemane,  I  had  no  eye  for  glass  bracelets.'  " — "  Pilgrim  Memo- 
ries," p.  297. 

This  remark,  apart  from  its  curious  inconsequence,  and  the  inconsistency 
of  the  whole  with  the  fact,  is  worthy  of  rescue  from  Mr.  Glennie's  ponderous 
prose.  We  must  remember  that  the  true  Jerusalem  was  forty  or  one  hun- 
dred feet  below  the  filth  on  which  Mr.  Glennie  was  standing ;  that  the  Garden 
of  Gethsemane  is  a  pleasing  (and  lucrative)  fiction  of  the  monks ;  and  that 
Mr.  Glennie,  despite  this  pious  expression,  does  not  in  a  general  way  ex- 
press extreme  veneration,  even  where  veneration  might  not  be  misplaced  ; 
as,  for  instance,  the  passage,  where  talking  of  the  Jordan  he  says — "  and 
that  other  event,  as  our  good  Murray  says,  '  of  still  more  thrilling  interest, 
the  baptism  of  God  Himself  in  its  sacred  waters.'  An  event,  certainly,  after 
the  mention  of  which  it  is,  I  confess,  an  anti-climax  to  conclude  with  the  fall 
'  down  flat '  of  the  walls  of  Jericho,  on  the  Israelites  shouting  and  blowing 
their  trumpets.  One  could,  in  our  respectable  caravan,  say  nothing  against 
literal  belief  in  these  legends ;  and  so,  what  expression  could  one  give  to 
one's  contempt  of  belief,  and  indignation  at  pretense  of  belief,  in  fables  so 
puerile,  so  infantile  rather  ;  what  expression  but  that  of  utter  ignoring  of 
them,  in  a  gay  flirtation  ?  "  etc.  (p.  324). 

That  this  is  Mr.  Glennie's  usual  tone  of  thought,  and  not  the  reverend, 
which  so  aptly  serves  to  make  Buckle  out  a  thoughtless  miser,  his  whole 
"  Pilgrim  Memories  "  will  show.     Compare  especially  pp.  404  and  341. 
28 


434:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

I  think  from  Thackeray  himself,  intimating  his  resignation 
of  the  editorship  of  the  <  Cornhill,'  and.  that  he  proposed 
devoting  himself  to  writing  a  Life  of  Queen  Anne.  On 
Good  Friday  Buckle  came  in  too  late  for  dinner,  and  had, 
in  consequence,  his  food  served  cold,  at  which  he  was  very 
wroth.*9  To  judge  from  the  gusto  with  which  he  talked 
of  the  many  capital  dinners  he  had  eaten  in  London,  I 
think  he  had  a  great  deal  of  the  gourmet  in  his  tastes. 
He  was  not  a  great  eater,  but  was  rather  fastidious  in 
what  he  ate.  He  told  me  he  never  got  a  first-class  dinner 
in  a  married  man's  house — the  only  unfavorable  remark 
on  matrimony  I  recollect  hearing  him  make.  He  talked 
also  a  great  deal  about  ciphers,  saying  that  no  cipher  had 
ever  been  invented  which  two  men  then  in  London, 
Wheatstone  and  De  Morgan,  could  not  find  out.  On  the 
19th  of  April,"  continues  Mr.  Longmore,  "I  went  with 
him  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  to  see  the  so- 
called  miracle  of  the  descent  of  fire  from  heaven  into  the 
tomb  of  our  Saviour,  where  the  Greek  Patriarch  is  shut  up 
alone.  As  usual  there  was  a  great  crowd  of  Greek  pil- 
grims crushing  and  crowding  the  floor  of  the  church  in  a 
very  unpleasant  way.  Through  the  American  Consul,  I 
got  Buckle  a  place  where  he  could  see  at  ease,  without 
being  hustled  about."  60  This  was  a  loggia  in  the  gallery 
of  the  rotunda  looking  down  upon  the  sepulchre.  The 
floor  around  was  so  tightly  packed  with  human  beings 
that  it  would  have  been  possible  to  walk  over  their  heads  ; 
the  heat,  noise,  and  babel  of  voices  were  beyond  descrip- 

49 1  find  by  his  diary,  however,  that  Buckle  dined  at  the  usual  table-cThote 
hour,  6.30;  and  hence  conclude  that  the  hour  was  changed  on  that  day 
without  his  knowledge. 

50  "  Athenaeum,"  for  25th  January,  1873,  p.  116. 


THE  HURLY-BURLY  DONE.  435 

tion.  The  rain  was  all  the  while  pouring  continuously 
through  the  circular  opening  of  the  dome  of  the  rotunda 
upon  the  sepulchre  beneath.  Looking  down  upon  this 
seething  mass,  Buckle  had  to  wait  more  than  three  hours, 
as  the  miracle  was  unpunctual — or  it  was  waiting  for  the 
priest,  who  was  unpunctual,  as  he  had  to  wait  for  the 
pasha,  and  pashas  are  always  unpunctual.  At  last  the 
Patriarch  entered  the  sepulchre,  and  soon  after  a  flame 
issued  forth  from  a  sort  of  pigeon-hole  on  the  side.  The 
multitude  became  frantic.  Candles  were  produced,  and 
the  light  spread  with  marvelous  rapidity  all  over  the 
church,  even  the  galleries  contributing  to  the  smoke  and 
blaze.  Men  passed  the  flame  round  their  faces,  to  prove 
that  it  would  not  harm  them :  for  was  it  not  of  heavenly 
origin  ?  Others  produced  pieces  of  rag,  which  they  be- 
dewed with  grease,  in  the  hope  that  these  drops  of  wax, 
melted  in  divine  fire,  and  buried  with  them,  would  cheat 
the  devil  of  his  due. 

At  last  the  hurly-burly  is  done,  and  Buckle  returned, 
much  impressed,  to  the  hotel.  Mr.  Longmore  asked  him 
what  he  thought  of  it?  "A  great  deal,"  said  Buckle; 
"  pious  frauds  have  been  considered  allowable  in  all  ages 
of  the  Church."  He  resumed  the  subject  on  another  oc- 
casion at  dinner ;  and,  talking  besides  of  some  processions 
he  had  seen,  made  some  little  jocular  remarks  upon  the 
dresses  of  the  monks.  Seeing  how  the  company  were  en- 
joying these  sallies,  Mr.  Gray,  who  was  seated  near  him, 
coughed  audibly.  Buckle  leaned  back  in  his  chair,  and  said, 
"  Really,  Gray,  I  would  not  have  said  what  I  did  had  I 
thought  it  could  possibly  hurt  your  feelings."  Mr.  Gray 
answered  that  Buckle  ought  to  know  him  better  by  that 


436  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

time,  and  that  he  had  only  coughed  to  warn  him  that  he 
was  listening  to  his  remarks,  and  remind  him  that  he  was 
a  Catholic.  However,  Buckle  turned  the  conversation  by 
saying,  "  You  know  I  do  not  think  as  you  do ;  but,  after  all, 
there  are  many  things  equally  difficult  of  belief  which  the 
Protestants  accept."  "  And  pray,  Mr.  Buckle,"  said  the  Ger- 
man clergyman  who  sat  opposite,  "  what  may  those  things 
be  which  you  find  so  difficult  of  belief?  "  "Well,"  said 
Buckle, "  take,  for  instance,  the  supposition  that  Jonah  lived 
three  days  in  a  whale's  belly,  and  then  came  out  still  alive." 
"  Oh,"  said  the  German,  "  but  that  was  a  miracle."  "  That 
is  an  assumption  on  your  part,"  replied  Buckle,  anot  a 
proof  that  it  really  occurred."  "  Then  you  don't  believe  in 
miracles?"  said  the  German,  rather  nettled.  "If  you 
mean  by  a  miracle,"  replied  Buckle,  "  the  reversal  of  the 
laws  of  nature,  then  I  do  not."  Upon  this  the  German 
lost  his  temper,  and  left  the  table;  and  the  two  other 
clergymen  thought  it  their  duty  to  do  likewise.  As  they 
departed,  Buckle  turned  round  to  the  company,  and  sol- 
emnly exclaimed,  "  See  how  they  flee  ! "  The  conversa- 
tion was  now  centered  on  religious  subjects.  Buckle  talked 
of  the  prophets,  and  maintained  against  some  of  the  com- 
pany that  Isaiah  was  the  greatest,  greater  even  than  Jere- 
miah ;  astonishing  them  by  the  quotations  he  was  able  to 
give  in  support  of  his  assertions.  After  dinner  the  talk 
was  still  continued.  He  said  he  believed  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament after  eliminating  the  supernatural;  that  he  con- 
sidered Jesus  Christ  the  greatest  teacher  and  civilizer  of 
mankind  that  ever  lived ;  declared  "  that  there  was  that 
in  His  teaching  which  it  was  difficult,  indeed  impossible, 
to  account  for  without  believing  Him  to  have  been  divine- 


SETTING  OUT  FOR  BETHLEHEM.  437 

Ij  inspired."  In  reply  to  a  question  whom  he  placed  next 
as  a  civilizer  of  mankind,  he  answered  without  hesitation, 
"  William  Shakespeare."  6a  Of  the  two,  however,  he  placed 
Shakespeare  first  in  the  order  of  mind — one  of  "  the  two 
mightiest  intellects  our  country  has  produced,"  as  he  calls 
him  ;  "the  greatest  of  the  sons  of  men"  ;  "the  greatest  of 
our  masters." 63  Indeed,  he  considered  Shakespeare  to  have 
been  inspired,  as  Christ,  and  as  all  great  minds  who  pos- 
sess true  genius,  the  real  breath  of  God.  He  afterward 
said  he  had  never  known  but  one  real  atheist,  and  that  he 
was  a  cabinet  minister." 

On  Monday,  21st  of  April,  Buckle  and  his  party  set  out 
for  Bethlehem,  all  on  horseback,  but  the  former  rejoicing 
in  the  extra  comfort  of  a  cavalry  saddle,  which  he  had  bought 
at  Jerusalem.  In  an  hour-and-a-half  ride  Bethlehem  was 
reached,  and  then  two  hours  were  devoted  to  the  convent, 
the  Church  of  the  Nativity,  and  the  Greek  and  Latin  chap- 
els, the  Cave  of  Adullam,  where  David  longed  for  the  water 
of  the  well  of  Bethlehem,  and  the  well  of  Bethlehem  with 
the  water  which  David  longed  for.  From  thence  they 
rode  to  Mar  Saba,  where  they  had  appointed  to  meet  their 
companions  of  the  desert.  The  monastic  rules  were  too 
strict  to  allow  of  the  admission  of  the  ladies  of  one  of  the 
parties,  who  consequently  had  to  encamp  outside ;  but  the 
monks  console  themselves  for  the  deprivation  of  female 
society,  and  cheat  their  founder,  the  holy  St.  Sabas,  by 
drinking  arrack,  a  liquor  which,  as  it  was  not  invented  A.D. 
532,  and  as  the  saint  had  apparently  no  prophetic  soul,  was 

52  J.  A.  Longmore,  in  the  "Athenaeum,"  pp.  116,  116.     25th  January, 
1873. 

53  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  i.,  p.  432 ;  vol.  ii.,  pp.  42,  404. 

54  "  Athenaeum,"  ut  sup. 


438  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

not  included  among  the  prohibited  drinks  of  his  founda- 
tion. The  whole  party  started  early  the  next  morning 
down  the  rocky  road  to  the  Dead  Sea,  a  region  which,  as 
of  yore,  is  still  infested  with  robbers.  Thieves  accompanied 
them,  as  a  visible  sign  and  receipt  of  the  blackmail  which 
had  been  levied ; "  and  at  one  o'clock,  the  hottest  time  of 
the  day,  they  arrived  at  the  lowest  point  of  the  surface  of 
the  globe,  the  valley  of  the  Dead  Sea.56  Here  Buckle  filled 
one  of  the  tins  he  had  had  made  in  Cairo  for  the  specimens 
of  the  water  of  the  Nile,  Red  Sea,  Dead  Sea,  Jordan,  and 
Tiberias.  From  this  scene  of  desolation  they  rode  on  to 
the  refreshing  waters  of  the  Jordan,  and  thence  to  their 
encampment  at  Jericho.  The  next  day  they  returned  to 
Jerusalem  by  Bethany,  a  place  Buckle  did  not  stop  at,  as 
he  had  already  made  an  excursion  to  it  from  Jerusalem. 

Having  seen  all  that  was  to  be  seen  in  this  disagreeable 
and  ill-smelling  town,  Buckle  set  out  the  next  day.  He 
had  just  received  a  letter  from  the  boys'  mother,  in  which 
was  copied  out  the  chief  part  of  Mill's  notice  of  the  "  His- 
tory of  Civilization,"  in  his  fifth  edition  of  the  "  System  of 
Logic," 6T  where,  talking  of  the  causation  of  social  phe- 
nomena, he  says  that  Buckle  has  not  only  popularized  the 
great  principle  of  general  laws,  but  clearly  and  triumph- 

55  It  is  related  of  a  gentleman  and  his  wife  who,  refusing  to  pay  black- 
mail, ventured  on  this  road  a  few  years  later,  that  they  were  set  upon,  and 
stripped  of  all  they  had  with  the  exception  of  the  "  Times  "  newspaper.  The 
gentleman  returned  to  Jerusalem  clad  in  the  body  of  that  journal,  while  his 
wife  was  forced  to  content  herself  with  the  supplement. 

66  It  is  1292  feet  below  the  level  of  the  sea.     Mr.  Glennie  takes  the  oppor- 
tunity to  sneer  at  Buckle  because  he  did  not  expose  his  feeble  person  to  the 
sun  in  the  hottest  part  of  the  day  in  the  hottest  part  of  Palestine,  "  to  ex- 
perience the  singular  sensation  of  being  unable  to  sink." — "  Pilgrim  Mem- 
ories," p.  323. 

67  Vol  ii.,  1862,  pp.  524,  et  seq. 


A  TALK  WITH  MR.   GLENNIE.  439 

antly  shown  that  masses  are  governed  bj  them  in  the  same 
way  as  individuals  are.  At  the  same  time  he  thinks,  like 
so  many  others,  that  Buckle  has  asserted  that  morals  are  of 
no  effect  in  civilization,  though  he  agrees  with  him  in  at- 
tributing to  the  advance  of  knowledge  the  great  improve- 
ment in  moral  actions,  moral  principles  remaining  very 
much  the  same ;  and  hence,  to  the  advance  of  knowledge 
the  main,  the  chiefest,  and  almost  exclusive  agency  in  the 
advancement  of  civilization.  Hence  Buckle's  contemptu- 
ous remark  on  the  savage  at  Petra,  "  Vice  is  better  than 
ignorance  "  ;  for  well  he  knew  that  the  worst  vice  was  ig- 
norance, just  as  the  greatest  sinner  is  the  instigator  to  sin. 
Let  a  community  be  vicious  if  you  will,  but  if  they  culti- 
vate knowledge,  true  and  real  knowledge,  and  not  that 
semblance  which  goes  under  the  name  of  an  "  acquaintance 
with  literature,"  they  must  improve ;  no  power  on  earth 
can  stop  it.  This  letter  gave  Buckle  great  pleasure: 
"  Only  a  woman  would  have  thought  of  sending  me  these 
extracts,"  said  he ;  and  during  the  first  day's  journey  he 
had  a  long  talk  with  Mr.  Glennie  on  Mill's  remarks." 
They  encamped  that  evening  at  'Ain-el-Haramiyeh,  or 
the  Eobber's  Fountain,  a  distance  of  five  hours'  journey 
from  Jerusalem,  having  rested  at  Bethel  an  hour  and  a 


58  «  piigrim  Memories,"  p.  330.  "  So  gratified,  indeed,  was  Mr.  Buckle 
that,  for  the  first  and  last  time,"  says  Mr.  Glennie,  "  in  my  recollection  of 
him,  he  expanded  in  a  humorous  practical  joke — presenting  one  of  the  fel- 
lows of  the  encircling  crowd  with  a  cheap  Jerusalem  cigar,  which,  as  he 
whispered  to  me,  he  had  found  would  not  draw."  This  is  very  probable, 
as  Buckle  had  no  objection  to  harmless  practical  jokes ;  it  is  also  very 
probable  that  it  was  the  only  one  that  appeared  humorous  to  Mr.  Glennie. 
But  Buckle  would  rather  have  given  up  smoking  altogether  than  smoke  bad 
tobacco ;  and  never,  as  far  as  I  recollect,  bought  a  cigar  in  Jerusalem.  He 
laid  in  a  stock  of  Manillas  at  Suez. 


440  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AKD  WRITINGS. 

quarter.  "But  though,"  as  Buckle  says  in  his  diary,  he 
"  rose  at  seven,  such  was  the  delay  of  the  muleteers  that 
we  did  not  leave  Jerusalem  till  eleven."  He  encamped  at 
six,  and  dined  at  seven  o'clock.  They  reached  Nabulus 
the  next  day,  at  one  o'clock,  after  six  hours'  ride,  including 
a  rest  of  twenty  minutes.  Here  he  walked  up  Mount 
Gerizim,  a  fatiguing  walk  in  the  hot  sun,  and  then  visited 
the  Samaritan  synagogue,  saw  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch, 
and  bought  a  Samaritan  MS. ;  and  the  next  day  attended 
service  in  the  synagogue  at  6.30,  where  all  the  chiefs  of 
the  few  remaining  Samaritan  families  were  assembled, 
clothed  in  white,  and,  to  the  untrained  ear,  making  a  tre- 
mendous noise.  At  about  six  the  same  evening  he  en- 
camped at  Jen  in,  just  on  the  edge  of  the  plain  of  Esdra- 
elon,  having  seen  the  church  of  St.  John,  at  Samaria,  on 
the  way.  He  was  up  the  next  day  at  his  usual  hour,  not- 
withstanding that  he  had  been  eleven  hours  in  the  saddle 
the  day  before,  and,  with  the  escort  of  one  picturesque 
Arab  guard,  which  is  usual  in  crossing  the  dangerous  plain 
of  Esdraelon,  started  at  7.30  and  encamped  at  Nazareth  at 
2.30.  The  route  followed  was  that  by  the  mound  and 
ruins  of  El-Fuleh,  an  important  spot  during  the  Crusades, 
but  now  of  little  interest.  Indeed,  throughout  Palestine 
the  historical  spots  are  of  but  little  interest,  and  generally  of 
but  little  authenticity ;  the  general  features  of  the  country 
are,  as  a  rule,  the  only  real  points  of  interest,  and  not  such 
tilings  as  the  reputed  prison  of  St.  John. 

Buckle's  system  had  hitherto  battled  bravely  with  the 
fever,  which,  as  I  have  said,  must  have  seized  him  at  Jeru- 
salem, but,  weakened  by  the  fatigues  of  the  last  two  days, 


THE  FATAL  ILLltfESS. 


lie  succumbed  at  Nazareth  for  the  first  time.59  He  did  not 
give  way,  however,  without  a  fight.  After  a  bad  night  he 
rose  at  eight,  and  enters  in  his  diary,  "  Much  better,  but 
shall  rest  here  all  day.  From  10.30  to  12  made  notes  from 
New  Testament.  Toward  afternoon  it  rained  with  great 
heaviness,  and  I  thought  it  better  to  sleep  at  the  convent." 
The  rain  in  addition  against  him  was  more  than  he  could 
bear  up  against ;  and  the  next  morning  he  woke  with  a 
bad  sore  throat,  which  he  had  felt  coming  on  the  evening 
before ;  he  had  no  appetite,  and  felt  so  weak  that,  with 
the  exception  of  two  hours  in  the  afternoon,  he  remained 
in  bed  all  day,  unable  to  read.  "While  Buckle  was  lying 
ill  here,  Mr.  Gray  and  his  party  arrived  at  Nazareth  ;  "  and 
although,"  he  observes,  "  we  were  told  that  Mr.  Buckle 
was  lying  ill  at  the  monastery,  I  could  not  help  noticing 
that  I  was  the  only  one  who  called  upon  him.  He  was  in 
bed,  and,  pointing  to  his  throat,  told  me  he  was  sorry  that 
he  could  only  converse  with  me  in  a  whisper,  but  asked 
me  to  sit  down  near  him,  and  we  conversed  on  various 
topics.  I  shall  not  easily  forget  the  interest  with  which 
he  listened  to  my  narration  of  how  I  fell  into  the  hands  of 
robbers  at  Shiloh,  near  Nabulus.  He  said  that  he  had 
been  so  interested  in  his  journey  that  he  thought  of  going 
next  year  to  Persia,  and  invited  me  to  accompany  him. 
Next  year  I  had  to  travel  through  Persia  with  another,  for 
my  friend  had  performed  his  last  journey.  I  advised  him 
to  call  one  of  the  monks,  who  was  a  doctor.  He  replied, 
'  I  hear  he  is  a  Spaniard.  Do  you  believe  in  Spanish  doc- 

59  Mr.  Glennie  hints  that  this  was  due  to  "  a  certain  imprudence  of 
diet !  " — "  Pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  365.  Buckle  was  more  particular  in  his 
diet  than  in  any  other  point  of  physical  conduct. 


442  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

tors  ? '  And  I  was  obliged  to  confess  I  had  no  experience 
of  them."  He  doctored  himself  from  a  little  medicine- 
chest  he  had  brought  with  him  from  England,  and  enters 
in  his  diary,  "Took  six  grains  compound-rhubarb  pill." 
But  the  next  morning,  "  feeling  worse,  I  sent  early  for  an 
Armenian  doctor.  He  touched  the  left  tonsil  with  lunar 
caustic,  and  applied  a  small  blister  externally ;  told  me  to 
keep  very  warm,  and  by  no  means  to  get  up,  and  to  take 
at  night  another  six-grain  rhubarb  pill."  The  doctor  re- 
turned again  at  seven  the  following  day ;  but  even  then 
neither  he  nor  Buckle  recognized  the  true  nature  of  the 
disease.  He  told  Buckle  that  an  ulcer  was  forming,  which 
he  touched  with  caustic,  and  then  very  unwisely  ordered 
him  half  a  grain  of  antimony,  to  be  taken  every  two  hours. 
"After  two  doses  I  found  the  sickness  insupportable," 
says  the  unfortunate  patient,  "  and  I  refused  to  take  more, 
to  the  great  regret  of  my  Armenian  doctor,  who  visits  me 
twice  a  day,  and,  though  a  very  civil  man,  is,  I  fear,  a  very 
ignorant  one.  He  told  me  to  keep  in  bed  all  day."  "  A 
restless  night,  with  great  prostration,  amounting  almost  to 
wandering,  confirmed  my  opinion  that  I  am  being  badly 
treated.  When,  therefore,  the  doctor  came,  at  8  A.  M.,  I 
persuaded  him  to  send  me  some  muriate  of  iron,  of  which 
I  took  ten  drops  in  a  wine-glassful  of  water.  I  further 
ordered  strong  mutton  broth  to  be  made  ;  for  since  Tues- 
day60 I  have  had  nothing  stronger  than  rice-water  and 
milk ;  and  at  10  A.  M.  I  got  up,  and  am  now  writing  my 
journal  (11.15)  with  the  window  open.  The  throat  is  very 
painful  when  I  swallow,  but  I  feel  better  in  all  other  re- 
spects. I  would  not  let  the  doctor  meddle  with  my  throat 

60  This  was  Friday. 


THE  FATAL  ILLNESS.  4A3 

this  morning,  as  I  wish  the  ulcer  to  reach  its  full  size,  and 
then  be  lanced."  The  next  day  he  writes,  "  Much  better, 
but,  appetite  being  bad  and  tongue  covered  with  a  coat 
like  white  cream,  I  took  at  6.30  A.  M.  two  of  Mr.  Morgan's 
pills,  containing  gray  powder.  Rose  at  T.30.  Ate  no 
breakfast.  Walked  half  an  hour ;  the  first  time  I  have 
been  out.  In  afternoon  played  backgammon.  The  only 
nourishment  I  can  take  is  mutton  broth  with  toast,  and 
occasionally  a  little  milk.  But  at  6.30  I  took  half  a  wine- 
glass of  brandy  in  two  tumblers  of  water,  and  felt  better 
after  it."  The  next  day,  Sunday,  he  was  again  "  much 
better ;  ate  two  eggs  and  drank  a  cup  of  milk  for  break- 
fast ;  walked  half  an  hour,"  and  even  smoked  a  cigar  as 
he  sat  reading  under  a  fig-tree. 

But  it  was  only  his  throat  that  was  better.  The  in- 
sidious disease  had  not  yet  mastered  him ;  but  it  was 
steadily  gaining  ground,  and  ever  ready  to  show  itself 
when  given  the  slightest  advantage.  All  the  delay  of  his 
illness  mattered  little  to  Buckle  himself ;  but  he  felt,  and 
was  always  regretting,  the  enforced  delay  of  Mr.  Glennie, 
involving  a  waste  of  time  and  money  to  that  gentleman  ; 
and  he  started  on  Monday  morning  for  Tabaria,  or  Tibe- 
rias, but  in  so  weak  a  state  that,  as  he  sadly  notes  in  his 
diary,  "  I  could  only  walk  my  horse  all  the  way,"  and  had 
to  rest  for  two  hours  and  a  quarter  on  the  road."  He  was 
a  little  stronger  the  next  day,  and  able  to  stroll  about  Ta- 
baria, see  the  hot  springs,  peep  for  a  minute  into  the  bath- 
house— where  he  notes  that  he  saw  the  "  people  bathing,  a 

61  I  do  not  wish  to  reflect  on  Mr.  Glennie  by  this  passage,  for  he,  of 
course,  knew  nothing  of  Buckle's  motive  beyond  what  polite  expressions  of 
regret  could  convey,  or  hfe  manifest  weakness  could  hint. 


444:  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

curious  but  disgusting  scene  " — and  also  into  the  syna- 
gogue. He  afterward  attempted  to  buy  a  phylactery  from 
some  of  the  Jews  who  were  of  German  origin,  and  spoke 
German  to  him  ;  but  their  demands  were  so  extortionate, 
and  their  German  so  bad,  that  he  grew  quite  angry,  and 
bought  nothing.  For  now  he  was  changed  in  this  respect, 
and  could  no  longer  keep  his  temper  as  before.  Not  that 
he  was  irascible  or  fretful ;  but  little  things  would  irritate 
him,  in  a  way  that  was  all  the  more  observable  because  of 
his  usually  admirable  temper  in  health,  and  constant  flow 
of  spirits,  which  now  diminished,  but  never  quite  left  him 
up  to  his  death.  From  Tabaria  he  rode  back  to  Nazareth, 
resting  two  and  a  half  hours  on  the  way,  and  "  able  to  trot 
and  canter  a  little." 

The  remainder  of  his  journey  is  but  little  more  than  a 
record  of  illness,  weakness,  exhaustion,  and  unabated  ener- 
gy, interest,  and  delight  in  what  he  saw.  He  left  Nazareth, 
and  reached  Akka,  on  May  7th,  after  five  and  a  half  hours' 
journey  and  a  rest  of  two  hours ;  and  then  walked  through 
the  town  and  round  the  fortifications,  and  looked  into  the 
prison — a  large  dungeon,  where  thieves  and  murderers, 
the  least  bad  and  the  very  worst,  were  confined  together, 
loaded  with  chains,  but  otherwise  free  to  do  very  much  as 
they  liked.  They  cooked  their  own  food  at  a  large  bon- 
fire in  the  middle,  and  a  begging  committee  sat  in  perma- 
nence behind  the  grated  gate.  The  next  day  Buckle  rose 
with  a  bad  sore  throat  again,  but  started  all  the  same  at 
eight,  along  the  fertile  plain  of  Akka,  across  the  "  Tyrian 
ladder" — a  difficult  pass  on  a  spur  of  Lebanon,  which 
forms  the  first  defense  of  Tyre — and  encamped  by  the  ruins 
of  Alexandroschene.  After  six  hours'  riding  and  two  hours' 


TYEE.  445 

rest  lie  was  "  quite  exhausted,  and  fell  asleep  before  din- 
ner." He  started  again  the  next  morning,  with  his  throat 
worse  than  the  day  before,  and  resumed  his  painful  march 
over  the  "  White  Cape,"  the  path  of  which  is  more  diffi- 
cult than  that  of  the  Tyrian  ladder,  and  stopped  at  Ras  el 
'Ain  to  examine  the  enormous  reservoirs,  which  are  curi- 
ous from  the  means  adopted  for  raising  the  water.  The 
springs  are  situated  in  the  plain,  and  gush  with  such  force 
from  the  earth  that,  if  allowed,  they  would  form  natural 
fountains  twenty-five  feet  high.  The  ancient  inhabitants, 
however,  knew  better  than  to  waste  this  valuable  gift. 
They  built  around  each  spring  a  massive  wall,  of  enormous 
and  unnecessary  strength,  which  formed  huge  reservoirs 
raised  above  the  plain,  and  supplied  various  aqueducts  till 
almost  modern  times,  but  now  only  served  to  drive  a  sin- 
gle mill.  From  thence,  along  the  sweep  of  sand  which 
has  accumulated  over  Alexander's  Mole,  he  rode  to  Tyre, 
where  he  went  out  in  a  boat  to  see  the  columns  and  other 
ruins,  which  were  quite  visible  under  the  transparent  wa- 
ter, though  not  so  visible  as  they  would  have  been  had  the 
water  been  smoother.  Thence,  leaving  at  about  half -past 
two,  and  neglecting  to  visit  the  u  tomb  of  Hiram,"  he 
traveled  along  the  plain  of  Phoenicia,  and  encamped  at  a 
spot  near  the  mouth  of  the  Nahr  el  Kasimiyeh,  probably 
the  ancient  Leontes,  about  four  o'clock. 

During  the  night  there  was  a  long  and  violent  storm, 
which,  together  with  the  pain  he  suffered  from  his  throat, 
and  probably  the  malaise  of  typhoid  fever,  caused  him  to 
sleep  very  badly.  Several  times,  too,  in  his  anxiety  for 
the  boys  under  his  care,  he  got  up  to  feel  if  the  rain  had 
penetrated  the  double  roof  of  the  tent.  The  day's  journey 


446  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

was  six  hours,  and  lie  arrived  at  Sidon  at  3  P.  M.,  where, 
he  says,  he  "  found  rooms  in  a  house,"  and  then,  "  sent  for 
the  French  resident  doctor,  who  turns  out  to  be  a  very  in- 
telligent man,  and  is  a  friend  of  Kenan's.  He  says  I  only 
need  rest."  He  could  eat  nothing  but  mutton  broth ;  and 
the  next  day,  after  breakfasting  in  bed,  he  removed  to  the 
convent,  where  the  monks  gave  him  "  excellent  rooms." 
The  following  day  his  throat  was  "  nearly  well ;  but  I  feel 
very  weak,"  he  adds,  and  only  walked  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
during  the  day.  But  he  amused  himself  by  playing  back- 
gammon, and  looking  at  some  Phoenician  antiquities,  which 
were  sent  for  his  inspection,  and  of  which  he  bought  sev- 
eral. The  French  Government  were  then  making  excava- 
tions in  the  neighborhood,  but  Buckle  was  too  weak  to  visit 
them,  though  he  pushed  on  for  Beyrout  the  next  day,  en- 
camping about  half  way  after  being  four  hours  and  a  half 
in  the  saddle.  He  rose  the  next  day  "  stronger,  notwith- 
standing a  bad  night,"  and  arrived  at  Beyrout  at  11  A.  M., 
14th  May,  lodging  at  the  Hotel  Belle  Yue.  Here,  the 
same  day,  he  wrote  a  letter,  of  melancholy  interest  as  the 
last  he  ever  penned : 

""We  have  arrived  here,"  he  says,  "all  well,  after  a 
journey  from  Jerusalem  entirely  beyond  all  description. 
"We  diverged  westward,  after  visiting  the  Sea  of  Galilee, 
in  order  to  travel  through  Phoenicia.  We  saw  Tyre  and 
Sidon,  and  got  much  valuable  information  respecting  the 
excavations  conducted  there  for  the  last  eighteen  months 
by  the  French  Government.  .  .  . 

"To-morrow  we  shall  see  the  Assyrian  remains  near 
here ;  and  the  next  day  start  for  Damascus,  Baalbec,  and 


THE  LAST  LETTER.  44.7 

return  to  Beyrout  by  the  cedars  of  Lebanon — the  oldest 
and  grandest  trees  in  the  world. 

"I  have  most  reluctantly  abandoned  Constantinople; 
because,  although  we  should  be  there  and  up  the  Danube 
long  before  the  unhealthy  season,  I  am  advised  that  the 
nights  on  the  river  are  occasionally  damp,  and  dangerous 
for  weak  eyes,  and  I  can  not  quite  satisfy  myself  about  the 
protection  the  berths  afford.  I  don't  choose  to  risk  my 
...  to  having  inflamed  conjunctiva,  for  he  has  now  had 
nothing  the  matter  with  his  eyes  for  more  than  five  months, 
and  I  intend  to  bring  him  back  sound  and  invigorated  in 
all  respects. 

"  The  only  other  route  to  Vienna  is  by  Trieste.  "We 
must  therefore  take  the  steamer  from  here  to  Smyrna, 
Syra,  and  Athens.  We  shall  see  little  or  nothing  of  Greece, 
as  the  weather  will  be  too  hot.  The  journey  is  not-very 
interesting,  but  we  have  had  our  fill  of  interest,  and  must 
think  of  health. 

"  I  expect  to  be  at  Trieste  about  the  middle  of  June ; 
and  as  you  said  that  the  end  of  July  would  suit  you  to 
reach  Yienna,  this  leaves  me  a  clear  month,  which  I  pur- 
pose spending  in  Gratz,  or  Gratz,  in  Styria,  on  the  rail- 
road between  Trieste  and  Yienna.  It  is  very  healthy,  has 
fine  air,  and  is  well  known  for  masters  and  education.  I 
shall  take  a  small  house,  or  part  of  a  large  one,  have  none 
but  German  servants,  and  work  the  boys  well  in  German. 

"  Please,  therefore,  direct  your  next  letter  to  Post  Of- 
fice, Gratz,  or  Gratz  (I  find  even  Germans  pronounce  it 
differently),  and  send  to  the  same  place  the  books  I  asked 
for  in  my  last  letter,  viz.,  Newman's  'Hebrew  Monarchy' 
(or  '  Commonwealth '),  published  by  Chapman,  and  Smith's 


448  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

new  '  Dictionary  of  Biblical  History  and  Geography.'  This 
is  by  Dr.  William  Smith,  and  the  book  is  on  the  same  plan 
as  his  i  Dictionary  of  Mythology.'  To  this  I  now  add 
Kenrick's  <  Phoenicia,'  as  my  boys  have  been  much  inter- 
ested in  Phoenicia,  and  want  to  know  more  about  it  than 
I  have  told  them.  I  shall  take  apartments  in  a  house  at 
Gratz  for  one  month,  and  hope  to  take  back  the  boys  good 
Gerinanists.  Four  weeks'  rest  and  good  work  will,  after 
all  this  excitement,  benefit  body  and  mind.  Consequently, 
if  we  were  finally  to  name  the  1st  of  August  as  our  day  of 
meeting  it  might  be  well.  Send  also  to  Gratz,  carefully 
packed  in  a  tin  canister,  two  pounds  of  tea.  .  .  . 

"  I  shall  send  from  here  (probably  via  Alexandria)  two 
wooden  cases.  The  largest  contains  nothing  but  curiosities 
— shells  from  the  Red  Sea,  coral,  antiquities,  etc. ;  and 
you  jnay  confidently  declare  that  there  is  nothing  to  pay 
duty ;  but,  if  opened,  the  repacking  will  require  great  care. 
The  other  and  smaller  case  contains  about  twenty  pounds 
of  the  finest  Latakia  tobacco,  unmanufactured.  To  pass 
this  a  permit  from  the  customs  will,  I  believe,  be  required ; 
but  you  will  know  how  to  proceed.  The  tobacco  must  be 
kept  in  a  dry  place,  of  equable  temperature,  specially  avoid- 
ing heat." 

The  same  day  he  brought  his  dragoman  before  the  con- 
sul for  not  properly  fulfilling  his  contract.  It  is  not  un- 
usual for  these  men  to  behave  exceedingly  well  during  the 
trip  up  the  Nile,  in  the  hope  of  being  taken  on  through 
Palestine,  and  then,  relying  on  not  being  prosecuted,  to  sup- 
ply the  party  badly  during  the  journey.  Hassan  had  not 
brought  a  sufficient  quantity  of  supplies  from  Cairo,  nor 


BEYROUT.  449 

had  he  made  up  this  deficiency  where  he  had  the  opportu- 
nity ;  and,  moreover,  the  progress  of  his  illness  made  Buc- 
kle fretful,  and  the  less  likely  to  look  over  such  things. 
As  Hassan  understood  Italian  best  of  all  European  lan- 
guages, Buckle  spoke  his  accusation  in  that  tongue,  with 
the  result  that  Hassan  was  ordered  to  refund  a  part  of  his 
pay.  Another  symptom  had  also  begun  prominently  to 
show  itself.  For  the  last  few  days,  notwithstanding  his 
weakness,  loss  of  appetite,  and  bad  nights,  he  had  become 
restless,  and  anxious  to  finish  his  journey.  He  felt  it  im- 
possible to  come  so  far,  and  then  leave  without  seeing  Da- 
mascus, the  dream  of  his  boyhood.  A  gentleman  staying 
at  the  same  hotel,  seeing  how  haggard  he  looked,  urged 
him  to  return  to  Europe  and  recruit  his  health ;  but  in 
vain.  A  great  part  of  the  following  day  was  spent  in  set- 
tling with  Hassan  at  the  consulate,  in  engaging  another 
dragoman,  and  making  arrangements  for  the  continuation 
of  the  journey. 

And  still  neither  he  nor  any  one  about  him  recognized 
the  nature  of  his  disease.  "  "Walked  for  one  hour  about 
the  town,"  he  writes,  May  16th.  "  Feel  better  to-day  than 
I  have  done  yet."  If  he  had  only  been  stricken  down 
then,  or  delayed  a  day  or  two,  we  might  now  see  the  "  His- 
tory of  Civilization"  complete!  But  at  one  o'clock  he 
started  by  the  new  French  road,  the  only  one  in  the  whole 
of  Syria  or  Palestine  that  can  be  dignified  with  the  name ; 
and  having  sent  on  the  tents  and  horses  to  El-Merj,  beyond 
which  point  the  road  was  unfinished,  he  did  the  six  hours' 
journey  in  a  carriage,  and  arrived  again  terribly  knocked 
up.  "  Oh,  this  body !  It  is  no  body  at  all ! " 62  he  bitterly 

62  Glennie,  "  Pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  439. 
29 


450  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

exclaimed.  And  the  next  day  his  appetite  was  worse, 
again,  he  could  only  take  a  little  milk  for  breakfast,  and 
some  of  the  other  symptoms  of  his  disease  recurred.  Nev- 
ertheless, he  again  set  out  at  nine  o'clock,  walking  his 
horse  along  the  road  where  practicable,  and  when  turned 
off  by  guards,  or  where  the  road  was  unfinished,  along  the 
winding  track  which  did  duty  for  a  road.  He  rested  three 
and  a  half  hours  at  mid-day,  and  during  this  rest  spoke  to 
Mr.  Glennie  of  his  life.68 

"  I  have  spent  fourteen  years  of  uninterrupted  happi- 
ness, which,  I  imagine,  few  people  can  boast  of.  But, 
then,  it  was  spent  in  work  such  as  few  men  have  cared  to 
undergo."  His  mother's  illness  and  death  had  broken  the 
spell ;  but  the  wound  was  doubtlessly  healing,  and,  had  he 
lived,  he  would  again  have  been  happy,  if  not  as  happy  as 
before.  But  death  was  already  upon  him,  and  it  was  not 
to  be.  The  whole  day  he  could  eat  nothing  solid ;  his  din- 
ner that  evening  was  only  soup.  But  there  was  still  the 
indomitable  will — the  prepotent  mind,  too  powerful  for 
the  overtasked  body.  Notwithstanding  the  increasing 
gravity  of  his  symptoms,  he  again  rose  at  six  the  follow- 
ing day,  though  he  had  passed  a  very  bad  night ;  again  his 
breakfast  consisted  only  of  a  draught  of  milk,  and  his 
weakness  was  so  great  that  he  was  scarce  able  to  sit  his 
horse.  Three  times  had  he  to  dismount  and  rest  during 
that  day's  journey;  and  once,  where  the  valley  of  the 
Abana  forms  an  oasis,  in  the  road  between  the  desert  pla- 
teau of  Sahra  and  the  ridge  of  Hermon,  Mr.  Glennie 

63  Mr.  Glennie  puts  it  at  this  point  of  the  journey  ("  Pilgrim  Memories," 
p.  440) ;  and  though  I  remember  the  conversation,  I  do  not  remember  where 
it  occurred. 


ILLNESS  INCREASING.  451 

heard  a  cry  behind  him,  "and  turning  round  saw  Mr. 
Buckle  clinging  to  the  neck  of  his  horse.  A  stirrup  had 
suddenly  given  way,  and  he  had  been  almost  thrown.  The 
effect  of  this  on  nerves  so  overworn  by  excitement  as  his 
now  were  can  easily  be  imagined.  And,  as  I  assisted  him 
from  his  horse,  he  said  '  a  sweat  of  terror  had  burst  over 
him.' » 64 

There  was  now  the  rocky  ridge  of  Hermon  to  surmount, 
from  whence  the  magnificent  view,  so  often  celebrated  by 
travelers,  burst  suddenly  upon  him.68  Buckle  was  deeply 
affected,  and,  dismounting,  sat  down  and  gazed  upon  the 
panorama  spread  below.  This  was  the  sight  which  h#d 
filled  his  childish  dreams  as  he  read  the  "  Thousand  and 
One  Nights  "  at  his  mother's  knee — that  dear  mother  he 
was  so  soon  to  rejoin.  This  was  also  the  historic  plain, 
the  site  of  many  a  speculation  of  maturer  years.  Did 
the  shadows  of  the  illustrious  line  of  Hadad,  of  the  leper 
Naaman,  the  proud  Assyrian  Lord  Cyzicenus,  Aretas,  or 

64  «  pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  449.     Mr.  Glennie  has  thought  it  judicious  to 
omit  the  passage,  "  He  was  now  quite  beyond  concealing  fear,"  which  he 
had  in  his  account  furnished  in  1863  to  "Fraser's  Magazine,"  p.  184. 

65  Ariosto  describes  it  as  if  he  had  seen  it : 

<:  Delle  piu  ricche  terre  di  Levante, 
Delle  piu  popolose  e  meglio  ornate 
Si  dice  esser  Damasco,  che  distante 
Siede  a  Gerusal&m  sette  giornate, 
In  un  piano  fruttifero  e  abbondante, 
Non  men  giocondo  il  verno,  che  1'  estate. 
A  questa  Terra  il  primo  raggio  tolle 
Delia  nascente  Aurora  un  vicin  colle. 

"  Per  la  citta  duo  fiumi  cristallini 
Vanno  inaffiando  per  diversi  rivi 
Un  numero  infinite  di  giardini, 
Non  mai  di  fior,  non  mai  di  fronde  privi." 

"  Orlando  Furioso,"  Canto  XVII.,  xviii.,  xix. 


452  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

Paul,  "  the  man  who  had  done  most  harm  to  the  world," 
of  the  Muslims,  sword  in  hand,  followed  by  the  graceful 
figures  of  Ghdnim,  the  son  of  Eiyoob,  the  distracted  slave 
of  love,  of  JSToor  ed-Deen,  of  'Ala  ed-Deen,  or  Marids  and 
Jdn,  'Efreets  and  Perees,  again  people  the  smiling  plain  ? 
Did  he  revert  to  great  historic  principles,  and,  looking 
down  from  this  vantage-ground,  seeing  this  sea  of  foliage 
bounded  by  a  desert,  the  fertilizing  streams,  the  luxury  of 
position,  of  color,  of  climate,  and  of  fertility,  again  bow  to 
the  great  power  of  nature  over  the  minds  and  imaginations 
of  mankind?  Long  did  he  gaze  at  that  living  picture. 
With  the  hand  of  death  upon  him,  his  keen  sense  of 
beauty  had  not  yet  gone.  "  This  is  worth  all  that  it  has 
cost  me ! "  he  exclaimed ;  and  what  it  had  cost  him  was, 
his  life. 

That  very  night  as  he  arrived  at  the  hotel,  at  eight 
o'clock,  after  a  fatiguing  ride  through  the  lanes  of  the 
suburb,  he  sent  for  the  only  qualified  doctor  in  the  place, 
Dr.  Nicora,  a  Frenchman;  for,  as  he  describes  himself, 
he  was  "utterly  prostrate."  The  doctor  gave  him  no 
advice  that  evening,  but  called  again  the  following  mom- 
ing,  Monday,  19th.  Buckle  had  again  passed  a  wretched 
night ;  his  tongue  was  white,  he  suffered  from  great  and 
constant  thirst.  But  the  doctor  failed  to  recognize  his 
disease,  and  treated  it  as  a  common  choleraic  attack; 
ordered  him  to  continue  soup,  and  yolks  of  eggs  beaten 
up  with  a  little  brandy,  but  not  to  take  too  much  milk ; 
to  allay  his  thirst  he  was  to  take  eight  to  ten  drops  of 
laudanum  in  a  quart  decanter  of  rice-water,  two  decanters 
in  the  twenty-four  hours ;  and  actually  ordered  him,  con- 
trary to  the  dictates  of  his  appetite,  to  eat  solid  food — a 


ILLNESS  INCREASING.  453 

cutlet,  if  possible,  twice  a  day.  He  accordingly  ate  a  cut- 
let for  breakfast,  and  then  went  out  for  a  walk  of  naif  an 
hour's  duration  in  the  bazaars,  leaning  on  the  arm  of  his 
dragoman.  At  dinner  that  day  he  was  unable  to  sit  at  the 
table,  which  was  spread  in  the  court-yard  of  this  truly 
Oriental  hotel,  between  the  fountain  and  the  alcove,  on 
the  far  sofa  of  which  Buckle  was  lying,  apparently  half 
asleep.  As  the  soup  was  being  served,  he  suddenly  start- 
ed up,  crying,  "  Oh,  mon  Dieu,  je  deviens  fou  ! "  There 
was  a  great  sensation  at  the  table,  and  he  was  taken  up- 
stairs, but  remained  delirious  the  whole  evening,  though 
he  was  able  to  undress  and  go  to  bed.  This  attack  he  at- 
tributed to  the  laudanum  he  had  been  ordered  to  take, 
which  might  have  had  such  an  effect  on  his  exhausted  and 
weakened  frame. 

On  Monday  or  Tuesday  Mr.  Glennie  had  called  on  the 
acting  consul,  Mr.  Sandwith,  and  informed  him  that  he 
was  traveling  with  Mr.  Buckle,  and  that  Mr.  Buckle  was 
at  present  ill.  Mr.  Sandwith  at  once  sent  a  message  ask- 
ing permission  to  call  upon  him ;  for  which  he  expressed 
his  thanks,  but  asked  him  to  defer  his  visit  until  he  should 
be  better.  In  the  mean  while,  Dr.  Nicora  at  last  discov- 
ered that  his  patient  was  suffering  from  typhoid  fever, 
and  immediately  adopted  the  lowering  treatment.  He 
wanted  to  bleed  him,  but  Buckle  strongly  objected,  and 
only  consented  at  last  to  be  locally  leeched,  for  he  knew 
well  enough  the  danger  of  this  method  of  treatment,  and 
especially  of  bleeding.68  Accordingly  he  refused  to  follow 

66  "  The  most  remarkable  symptom  of  the  typhoid  poison  is  the  extreme 
degree  of  prostration,  both  of  the  physical  and  of  the  intellectual  powers, 
which  it  produces.  .  .  .  Bleeding  is  most  pernicious."  See  his  "  Miscella- 
neous and  Posthumous  Works,"  vol.  L,  pp.  403,  404. 


454  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

the  doctor's  advice,  but  treated  himself  from  the  small 
medicine  chest  which  he  had  brought  with  him  from  Eng- 
land, but  soon  got  too  weak  even  to  do  this,  and  the  doctor 
had  his  own  way.  He  was  leeched  on  Saturday,  24th,  Sun- 
day, 25th,  and  Tuesday,  27th,  and  the  lowering  treatment 
put  into  full  practice. 

On  Thursday,  22d,  Mr.  Glennie  called  again  on  Mr. 
Sandwith,67  "  to  say  that  he  could  not  conveniently  stay  any 
longer,  as  he  was  anxious  to  see  Baalbec  before  quitting 
Syria,  and  intended  setting  out  thither  at  once.  He  added 
that  he  considered  Mr.  Buckle  so  far  better  as  to  justify 
his  leaving  him."  68  "Relieved  at  hearing  a  better  ac- 
count, I  ventured,"  continues  Mr.  Sandwith,  "  as  soon  as 
Mr.  Glennie  had  left,  to  call  at  the  hotel,"  and  on  Sunday, 
25th,  he  received  Mr.  Buckle's  permission  to  visit  him. 
"  I  found  Mr.  Buckle  in  bed,"  he  says,  "  with  a  worn  and 
anxious  look ;  and  sitting  by  his  bedside  I  talked  with  him 
for  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour."  Buckle  spoke  with  him 
of  Damascus  and  his  travels ;  the  old  fire  began  to  return^ 
and  he  talked  with  considerable  animation,  among  other 
things  mentioning,  with  great  admiration,  the  name  of 
Dean  Stanley,  whose  mind  he  considered  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  in  the  English  Church,  and  of  rare  independence ; 
and  incidentally,  that  religion,  being  of  all  others  the  sub- 
ject of  most  importance  to  mankind,  had  consequently 
engrossed  some  of  the  deepest  minds  in  all  ages.  Judging 
that  he  was  fatigued,  Mr.  Sandwith  then  left,  at  the  same 
time  making  arrangements  to  take  the  boys,  who  were 
still  at  the  hotel,  but  no  longer  in  the  same  room,  and 

67  "  Pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  465. 

«8  Letter  of  Mr.  Sandwith  to  Henry  Huth. 


ILLNESS  INCREASING.  455 

of  whom  "  lie  seemed  very  fond,"  for  a  ride  through  the 
beautiful  gardens  of  Damascus. 

On  Monday,  26th,  Mr.  Sandwith  called  again,  with  Mr. 
Kobson,  a  missionary,  when  they  found  the  patient's  mind 
beginning  to  wander,  and  his  symptoms  generally  becom- 
ing so  grave  that  they  thought  it  advisable  to  ask  him  if 
he  had  any  testament  to  make ;  but  he  was  not  sufficiently 
himself  to  respond  pertinently  to  their  questions.  Mr. 
Sandwith  then  persuaded  Dr.  Nicora  to  allow  him  to  tele- 
graph to  Bey  rout  for  an  American  physician,  Dr.  Barclay ; 
he  also  procured  an  Englishwoman,  who  had  had  experi- 
ence in  nursing,  to  sit  with  Buckle ;  and  he  and  Mr.  Kob- 
son thenceforward  were  almost  constant  in  their  attendance 
at  his  bedside. 

Even  now,  despite  the  dreadful  state  of  weakness  to 
which  poor  Buckle  was  reduced,  his  life  might  possibly 
have  been  saved.  Mr.  Sandwith  telegraphed  on  Monday, 
26th,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon ;  and  allowing  two 
hours  for  receipt  of  telegram  and  preparation,  the  doctor 
might,  with  hard  riding,  have  arrived  by  eight  o'clock  on 
the  Tuesday  morning.  But  by  the  criminal  neglect  of  the 
telegraph  clerks,  Dr.  Barclay  did  not  receive  it  until 
twelve  hours  after  it  was  sent,  and  then,  instead  of  at  once 
starting  off,  he  telegraphed  back  to  ask  whether  his  ser- 
vices were  yet  required ;  and  precious  time  was  lost  be- 
fore a  second  telegram,  requiring  his  immediate  pres- 
ence, reached  him.  During  Tuesday  Buckle's  mind  was 
clearer  again ;  he  recognized  those  around  him,  often 
sweetly  smiling  when  the  boys  came  into  the  room,  but  he 
was  never  equal  to  any  sustained  mental  effort ;  his  articu- 
lation was  very  imperfect,  and  toward  evening  his  mind 


456  BUCKLE'S  LIFE  AND  WRITINGS. 

was  wandering  again.  Dr.  Barclay  arrived  at  three  o'clock 
on  Wednesday,  28th,  and  at  once  pronounced  the  case  al- 
most hopeless.  The  patient  was  insensible,  breathing 
heavily,  and  his  pulse  was  at  130,  feeble  and  intermit- 
tent; there  were  besides  indications  of  internal  haemor- 
rhage. Without  waiting  for  Dr.  Mcora,  lie  at  once  gave 
him  stimulants;  and  when  that  gentleman  arrived,  he 
persuaded  him  to  agree  to  this  method  of  treatment.69 

About  eight  o'clock  the  same  evening  consciousness  be- 
gan to  return,  and  he  managed  to  intimate  that  he  wished 
to  see  his  little  traveling  companions.  They  came  in,  one 
at  a  time.  The  first  he  beckoned  to  him,  and  as  lie  bent 
down  to  kiss  him,  put  his  arm  round  his  neck  and  mur- 
mured, "  Poor  little  boys  !  "  The  other  sat  with  him  for 
about  an  hour.  He  had  a  very  quiet  night,  with  intervals 
of  consciousness ;  but  at  six  in  the  morning  a  sudden  and 
very  marked  change  for  the  worse  became  but  too  pain- 
fully evident ;  and  at  a  quarter  past  ten  he  quietly  breathed 
his  last,  with  merely  a  wave  of  the  hand. 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  look  of  intellectual  majesty 
as  well  as  of  sweet  dignity  which  death  had  stamped  upon 

69  "  I  found  him  apparently  moribund,  comatose,  with  stertorous  breath- 
ing, occasionally  spasmodic,  involuntary  discharges,  vomiting  a  black  fluid 
like  coffee-grounds,  pulse  very  frequent  (130  a  minute),  feeble,  and  inter- 
mitting, and  extremities  cold.  ...  I  administered  an  enema  of  assafcetida, 
and  ordered  brandy  and  water  to  be  given,  and  sinapisms  to  be  applied  to 
extremities.  .  .  .  After  some  two  hours  the  doctor  called,  and  pronounced 
the  case  better  than  when  he  called  in  the  forenoon,  the  pulse  having  be- 
come regular,  fuller,  and  comparatively  soft,  and  a  warm  perspiration  hav- 
ing appeared  on  the  forehead  and  chest.  The  breathing  was  also  easier  and 
more  natural.  After  some  discussion  I  induced  Dr.  Nicora  to  agree  to  the 
stimulant  plan  of  treatment,  viz.,  carbonate  of  ammonia,  stupes  of  oil  of 
turpentine  over  the  abdomen,  which  was  tympanitic,  and  the  brandy  to  be 
continued ;  also  a  blister  was  applied  to  the  neck,  and  very  strong  chicken- 
broth  administered  during  the  night."— Evidence  of  Dr.  Barclay. 


DEATH.  457 

his  features — features  which,  in  their  sharply  defined  out- 
lines, caused  by  excessive  thinness,  bore  little  resemblance," 
says  Mr.  Sandwith,  "to  a  photograph  of  the  deceased 
which  I  have  since  seen."  ™  That  same  afternoon  we 
carried  him  to  his  last  resting-place,  in  .the  little  Protes- 
tant cemetery,  "  a  little  company  of  real  mourners — the 
doctor,  Mr.  Robson,  who  had  watched  with  me  by  the  pil- 
low of  the  departed,  myself,  and  those  two  boys,  the  sons 
of  Mr.  Huth,  who  were  heart-broken  at  the  sudden  loss  of 
their  noble-minded  companion  and  friend."  The  Syrian 
sun  shone  hotly  down  as  the  solemn  Anglican  burial  ser- 
vice was  read,  and  mother  earth  closed  over  that  vesture 
of  decay  which,  for  so  short  a  time,  had  enwrapped  his 
immortal  soul. 

10  He  never  had  but  one  taken. 


APPENDIX. 


MR.  GLENNIE'S  MEMORIES. 

ALL  the  biographies  of  any  importance  have  already 
received  sufficient  notice  in  the  course  of  this  work.  But 
there  yet  remains  one,  on  the  last  few  months  of  Buckle's 
life,  which,  coming  from  the  pen  of  a  fellow  traveler,  and 
professing  to  be  records  of  "  Travel  and  Discussion  in  the 
Birth- Countries  of  Christianity  with  the  late  Henry  Thomas 
Buckle,"  would  appear  to  be  of  greater  importance  than  it 
really  is. 

How  Mr.  Buckle  made  Mr.  Glennie's  acquaintance  ;  how, 
feeling  his  health  improve,  and  his  love  of  conversation  re- 
vive, he  sought  a  companion  for  the  remainder  of  his  jour- 
ney, and,  failing  the  company  of  any  one  else,  secured  that 
of  Mr.  Glennie,  has  already  been  described.  How  they  met 
at  Suez,  and  continued  their  travels  together  until  Mr.  Buckle 
was  struck  down  at  Damascus  with  typhoid  fever  ;  how  Mr. 
Glennie,  unwilling  to  waste  his  time  in  attendance  on  his  dy- 
ing companion,  left  for  Baalbec,  and  Mr.  Buckle  died,  has 
also  been  related,  and  need  not  be  repeated.  The  main  facts, 
indeed,  were  already  known  soon  after  Buckle's  death.  Well, 
then,  may  Mr.  Glennie  have  been  thought  to  be  one  speaking 
with  authority,  and  his  work  considered  not  only  an  impor- 
tant contribution  to  Buckle's  biography,  but  also  as  a  shrine 
wherein  much  of  his  conversation  was  treasured  up. 

The  book  is  a  curious  one.  There  is  much  in  it  about 
"  Oneness  "  and  the  "  Ideal."  We  are  told  that  Christ  and 
the  chief  priest  and  elders  were  in  the  habit  of  talking  Greek 


460  APPENDIX. 

to  each  other ;  *  and  we  are  treated  to  such  brilliant  flights 
of  eloquence  and  imagination  as  the  passage  :  "  How  Ely- 
sian  were  life,  all  gathering  for  each  other,  on  the  strand  of 
our  little  star- island,  the  beautiful  shells  of  natural  law,  and 
bathing  in  the  gleaming  sea  of  the  Infinite  ! "  What  is  even 
more  curious  to  any  one  who  ever  met  Buckle  is  the  extraor- 
dinary fact  that  in  most  cases  Mr.  Glennie  seems  to  monopo- 
lize the  conversation,  while  Mr.  Buckle  only  ventures  to  put 
in  occasionally  a  "  Well !  "  or  "  How  so  ?  "  or  announce  the 
fact  that  it  is  time  for  lunch.  But,  if  the  reader  be  indul- 
gent, he  will  pass  this  over,  considering  that  the  unequal 
length  of  the  paragraphs  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Glennie  has  had  thirteen  years  to  work  up  the  arguments 
he  urged,  while  Mr.  Buckle's  interjections  come  in  very  use- 
fully to  help  Mr.  Glennie  along,  and  wind  him  up  again,  as 
it  were,  when  he  has  run  down.  However,  this  indulgence 
can  not  last  long  ;  for  looking  more  carefully  at  Mr.  Buckle's 
reported  conversation,  we  feel  irresistibly  impelled  to  exclaim 
with  the  "  Athenaeum,"  "  In  Mr.  Buckle's  lifetime  he  talked 
sense,  but  here  he  is  made  to  talk  nonsense."  Occasionally, 
indeed,  we  do  come  across  a  sentence,  a  fragment,  an  oasis 
in  the  dreary  waste  of  words,  which  Buckle's  friends  would 
recognize  as  his  ;  such  as  his  quotation  to  Mr.  Glennie  :  "  I 
can  find  you  an  argument,  but  not  understanding."  And 
yet,  notwithstanding  this  natural  deficiency,  Mr.  Glennie  has 
undertaken  to  supply  Mr.  Buckle  with  arguments — some 
from  passages  in  the  "History  of  Civilization,"  some  from 
his  "Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  Works,"  and  others,  to 
judge  from  internal  evidence,  from  his  own  dreams. 

How,  it  may  be  asked,  could  two  boys,  the  one  but  fif- 
teen, the  other  but  twelve,  presume  to  doubt  Mr.  Glennie's 

1  "  Most  pertinent  is  the  question  of  the  chief  priests  and  elders  of  the 
people  :  'Ez/  iroia  Qovvia  ravra.  iroie'is ;  /col  ris  ffoi  eSw/cei/  r^v  Qovffiav  ravirriv  ; 
'  By  what  authority  doest  Thou  these  things  ?  and  who  gave  Thee  this  au- 
thority ? '  And  that  question  can  not  now  be  answered  by  a  refusal  to 
answer  it — OuSe  670?  \fyo  vfuv  Iv  iroia  l^oviria  ravra  iroiw — '  Neither  tell  I 
you  by  what  authority  I  do  these  things.'  "  See  p.  298. 

a  Page  246. 


APPENDIX.  461 


report  of  conversations,  which  were  not  addressed  to  them, 
of  which  they  took  no  notes,  which  they  frequently  did  not 
listen  to,  and  could  rarely  have  remembered  or  even  have 
understood  ?  The  answer  is  very  simple.  Notwithstanding 
that  Mr.  Glennie  has  waited  until  nearly  all  was  published 
that  poor  Buckle  left  behind  him ;  notwithstanding  his  as- 
sertion that  he  has  "  given  all  Mr.  Buckle's  more  important 
opinions  in  the  very  words  of  his  published  writings," 8  he 
has  not  read  those  writings  so  carefully  but  what  he  has 
attributed  to  Buckle  in  many  instances  the  exact  opposite  of 
what  he  says  "  in  his  published  writings."  Such  a  proof  of 
the  worthlessness  of  Mr.  Glennie's  record  was,  indeed,  unne- 
cessary for  those  who  knew  Mr.  Buckle  at  all  intimately. 
Buckle's  sentiments,  behavior,  and  whole  tone  of  conversa- 
tion, as  here  given,  are  so  utterly  different  from  those  of  the 
Buckle  they  knew,  that  they  saw  at  once  that  Mr.  Glennie 
was  quite  incompetent  to  produce  anything  at  all  similar  to 
what  he  really  must  have  said. 

Mr.  Buckle's  conversations  have  been  already  described 
in  the  body  of  this  work  ;  they  were  always  interesting, 
whether  a  discussion  of  the  summum  bonum  or  mere  badi- 
nage. Though  vain  men  were  not  always  pleased  to  meet 
him,  they  listened  gladly  enough,  however  they  might  in- 
wardly chafe  at  their  inability  to  shake  his  argument. 
"  There  was  nothing  awful  about  Buckle,"  says  a  writer  in 
the  "  Atlantic  Monthly  "  ;  and  he  enjoyed  a  joke,  and  made 
one,  as  well  as  anybody.  He  would  listen  with  deference  to 
anybody  who  wished  really  to  arrive  at  the  truth  ;  but  "  if," 
says  Mr.  Longmore,4  "  indeed  he  saw  symptoms  of  conceit, 
or  impudent  dogmatism,  on  the  part  of  an  opponent,  he  was 
down  upon  him  like  a  sledge-hammer  ;  and  I  have  often  pit- 
ied a  poor  wretch  who  had  to  submit  to  be  pounded  to 
pieces  by  him,  though  I  must  say  the  victim  generally  richly 
deserved  it.  ...  He  never  prosed,  and  woe  betide  him  who 
became  prosy  in  his  company.  In  a  single  lucid  sentence  or 

3  Preface,  p.  xiii. 

4  "  Athemeum,"  25th  January,  1873,  p.  114. 


462  APPENDIX. 

two  he  took  up  the  threads  of  the  arguments  over  which  the 
proser  was  driveling,  and  completely  shut  him  up,  by  clearly 
explaining  to  the  company  what  there  seemed  no  prospect  of 
his  being  able,  in  any  reasonable  time,  to  make  clear  him- 
self." 

His  conversations  with  Mr.  Glennie  were  no  exceptions 
to  this  rule.  Here  was  a  young  man,  whom  Buckle  thought 
to  be  clever  and  desirous  of  knowledge ;  he  intended  to 
write  a  book  on  the  "  History  of  British  Law  "  ;  he  was  go- 
ing to  publish  it  in  two  years.  Nothing  could  be  more 
likely  to  enlist  Buckle's  sympathy,  nothing  more  powerful 
to  move  him  to  point  out  the  road  most  likely  to  lead  an 
earnest  worker  in  the  right  direction.  He  very  early  ex- 
plained to  Mr.  Glennie  how  impossible  it  was  to  write  any- 
thing worth  reading  without  having  previously  studied  all 
that  had  been  written  of  importance  on  the  subject,  and 
without  having  formed  and  exercised  one's  self  in  a  good 
style  of  writing.  He  ought  to  devote  at  least  ten  years 
more  to  preparation.  As  he  sat  inside  his  tent  with  the  boys 
at  'Ain  Musa,  the  first  evening  of  the  desert  life,  he  smiled, 
and  nodding  toward  the  form  of  Mr.  Glennie,  who  stood 
outside  in  his  red  tarboosh,  said,  "  The  tall  man  in  the  red 
cap  thinks  he  is  going  to  write  a  book  in  two  years."  Mr. 
Glennie's  first  scientific  work  was  published  just  ten  years 
after. 

Mr.  Glennie  seems  to  have  omitted  this  conversation  on 
his  projected  work,  so  we  will  go  on  to  the  first  that  he  does 
give  :  on  Buckle's  estimation  of  the  character  of  the  Scotch. 
In  this,  Mr.  Buckle  asks  Mr.  Glennie  what  he  thinks  it  was 
so  excited  the  anger  of  his  countrymen.6  Mr.  Glennie  an- 
swers, that  Buckle  should  have  read  more  of  the  ballad  liter- 
ature of  Scotland  instead  of  the  religious  publications  exclu- 
sively. To  this  Buckle  is  made  to  say  nothing  more  than 
what  has  been  published  long  ago  in  his  History.  Mr.  Glen- 
nie then  observes  that  he  thinks  "  civilization  in  Scotland, 
and  its  history,  can  not  be  truly  represented  as  a  whole  with-' 

6  Page  104. 


APPENDIX.  463 


out  taking  due  account  of  both  these  parties  (i.  e.,  the  fanat- 
ical majority  and  the  skeptical  minority)  ;  so,  the  fanatical 
Christian  section  can  not  be  truly  judged  except — except  it 
be  justified."  Buckle  is  surprised,  and  Mr.  Glennie  goes  on 
to  explain  that  "  these  men  had  but  drunk  too  deeply  of 
dogmatic  Christianity,"  6  and  to  that  should  be  attributed 
their  intolerance,  their  belief  in  themselves,  the  patience  of 
their  flocks,  their  assumption  of,  and  the  public  acquiescence 
in,  their  claim  to  be  divinities  on  earth  !  And  Buckle  has 
no  direct  answer  to  make  to  this  !  He  has  nothing  to  say  to 
the  assertion  that  these  men  are  pardonable  because  they 
only  adopted  literally,  and  believed  without  question,  the 
words  of  the  Bible  !  He  allows  Mr.  Glennie,  according  to 
Mr.  Glennie's  account,  to  slip  on  to  another  question,  which 
we  shall  presently  notice,  and  says  nothing  !  Why,  pages  of 
his  History  might  be  quoted  in  answer !  He  pardons 
them,  indeed,  in  that  they  kept  alive  the  spark  of  liberty  : 
"  One  thing  they  achieved,  which  should  make  us  honor  their 
memory,  and  repute  them  benefactors  of  their  species.  At 
a  most  hazardous  moment,  they  kept  alive  the  spirit  of  na- 
tional liberty.  .  .  .  This  is  their  real  glory,  and  on  this 
they  may  well  repose.  They  were  the  guardians  of  Scotch 
freedom,  and  they  stood  to  their  post.  Where  danger  was, 
they  were  foremost."  7  He  pardons  them  for  that,  and  tells 
us  that  the  real  cause  of  their  conduct  was  the  circumstances 
under  which  they  were  placed.  To  impute  blame  to  them, 
would  be  to  blame  the  laws  of  nature.  We  do  not,  indeed, 
blame  a  man  because  he  is  criminal ;  we  blame  his  education. 
At  the  same  time,  we  can  hardly  praise  him  for  his  wicked- 
ness. He  undoubtedly  has  a  certain  amount  of  free  will, 
and  he  might  have  been  better.  Nor,  even  if  he  has  no  free 
will  whatever,  will  our  opinion  be  modified.  We  admire  the 
well  made  and  strong,  not  the  weak  and  the  crippled.  Be- 
cause the  Scotch  Covenanters  did  one  good  thing,  shall  we 
neglect  to  censure  those  things  they  did  which  were  bad  ? 

6  Page  113. 

7  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  258. 


464:  APPENDIX. 

Shall  we  praise  them  for  their  ignorance  and  intolerance, 
their  ascetism  and  tyranny,  because  they  refused  to  allow 
any  sort  of  tyranny  but  their  own  ?  However,  undisturbed 
by  anything  of  this  sort,  the  conversation  is  thus  continued  : 

"B[uckle].  I  have  not  yet  happened  to  study  the  his- 
tory of  Buddhism. 

"  A[uthor,  i.  e.,  Mr.  Glennie].  No  study  can,  I  think,  be 
more  instructive  with  reference  to  the  origin  and  character 
of  Christianity  as  a  great  historical  phenomenon.  For  Bud- 
dhism is  the  Eastern  correlate  of  Christianity,"  etc. 

"B.  Well,  I  fear  that  I  must  admit  the  truth  of  your 
other  allegation,  and  that  it  was  really  out  of  expediency 
rather  than  principle  that  the  toleration  of  Christian  com- 
munities historically  arose. 

"A.  Not  in  Christianity,  therefore,  which  ever  was — as 
to  this  day,  wherever  it  has  the  chance,  it  is — bitterly  anti- 
tolerationist,"  etc.8 

Had  Mr.  Glennie  read  Mr.  Buckle's  Commonplace 
Books,  instead  of  merely  looking  into  the  index,  had  he 
carefully  looked  through  the  "  History  of  Civilization,"  had 
he  even  kept  a  catalogue  from  the  sale  of  Mr.  Buckle's 
library,  he  might  have  avoided  so  grave  a  mistake.  In  this 
catalogue  may  be  found  the  titles  of  numbers  of  books  which 
Buckle  could  not  have  read  without  studying  Buddhism  ; 9 

8  Page  115. 

9  "History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  i.,  p.  2,  note  7.     From  the  Sale  Cata- 
logue I  select  the  following : 

"  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal."     Calcutta.     8vo. 

"  European  Speculations  on  Buddhism."  By  B.  H.  Hodgson.  Vol.  Hi., 
pp.  382-387.  1834. 

"  Further  Remarks  on  M.  R6musat's  Review  of  Buddhism."  By  B.  H. 
Hodgson.  Vol.  iii.,  pp.  425-431.  1834. 

"Notices  on  the  Different  Systems  of  Buddhism,  extracted  from  the 
Tibetan  Authorities."  By  A.  C.  Korosi.  Vol.  vii.,  p.  142,  et  seg. 

"  Review  of  L'Histoire  du  Buddhism  Indien,  par  E.  Burnouf."  By  Dr. 
E.  Roer.  Vol.  xiv.,  part  ii.,  pp.  783-809.  1845. 

"  A  Few  Gleanings  in  Buddhism."  By  Colonel  Low.  Vol.  xvii.,  part, 
ii.,  pp.  591-618.  1848. 

"  Asiatic  Researches,  or  Transactions  of  the  Society  Instituted  in  Ben- 
gal," etc.  Calcutta.  4to. 


APPENDIX.  465 

while  in  the  Commonplace  Book,  Buckle  has  several  notes 
on  Buddhism.  And  Mr.  Glennie  must  teach  Buckle,  for- 
sooth, that  "  Buddhism  is  the  Eastern  correlate  of  Christi- 
anity." The  remark  was  made  long  ago  by  Southey,  who, 
though  he  did  not  see  the  entire  bearing  of  the  subject,  yet 
writes  :  "  I  think  I  have  discovered  that  one  of  the  great 
Oriental  mythologies  was  borrowed  from  Christianity — that 
of  Buddha,  the  Fo  of  the  Chinese  ;  if  so,  what  becomes  of 
their  chronology  ? "  and  is  copied  into  Buckle's  Common- 
place Book,  as  an  instance  of  the  advance  of  religious 
knowledge  in  England  in  1805.10  Moreover,  if  this  is  not 
enough,  the  whole  scope  and  tenor  of  Buckle's  studies  might 
have  taught  Mr.  Glennie  better  ;  and,  further,  since  we  only 
have  Mr.  Glennie's  word  for  the  assertion,  he  must  not  com- 
plain if  I,  too,  assert,  that  when  talking  on  Fichte  to  my 
mother  he  explained  the  relation  of  Fichte's  philosophy  to 
Buddhism,  and  said  that  the  latter  "  was  a  most  philosophi- 

"  On  Egypt  and  other  Countries,  etc.,  from  the  Ancient  Books  of  the 
Hindus."  By  Fr.  Wilford.  Vol.  iii.,  art.  xiii.,  pp.  412,  et  seq. 

"  On  Singhala,  or  Ceylon,  and  the  Doctrines  of  Bhooda,  from  the  Books 
of  the  Singhalaise."  By  Capt.  Mahony.  Vol.  vii.,  art.  ii.,  pp.  32-56. 

"  Introductory  Remarks  intended  to  have  accompanied  Capt.  Mahony's 
Paper  on  Ceylon  and  the  Doctrines  of  Buddha,"  etc.  By  J.  H.  Harrington. 
Vol.  viii.,  appendix,  p.  503,  et  seq. 

"  On  the  Religion  and  Literature  of  the  Burmas."  By  Fr.  Buchanan. 
Vol.  vi.,  art.  viii.,  pp.  163-308. 

"  The  Mahawanso,  in  Roman  Characters,  with  the  Translation  subjoined, 
and  an  Introductory  Essay  on  Pali  Buddhistical  Literature."  By  the  Hon. 
G.  Tumour.  Ceylon,  1837.  4to. 

"  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land." London.  4to. 

"  Sketch  of  Buddhism,  derived  from  the  Buddha  Scriptures  of  Nipal." 
By  B.  H.  Hodgson.  Vol.  ii.,  art.  xiii.,  pp.  222-257,  and  appendix,  pp. 
Ixxvii.-lxxxii. 

"  On  Buddha."     By  James  Low.     Vol.  iii.,  art.  iii.,  pp.  57-65. 

"  A  Disputation  respecting  Caste,  by  a  Buddhist,"  etc.  By  B.  H.  Hodg- 
son. Ibid.,  pp.  160-169. 

"Journal  Asiatique."  Paris.  8vo.  1822-1848.  Contains  many  pa- 
pers on  Buddhism. 

Also  other  and  general  works. 

10  Buckle's  C.  P.  B.,  art.  1986.    See,  also,  art.  1779. 
30 


APPENDIX. 

cal  creed."  Even  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Glennie's  sentence, 
«  No  study  can,  I  think,  be  more  instructive,"  is,  with  the 
exception  of  the  "  I  think,"  extremely  like  Buckle's  diction. 
And  then  Mr.  Buckle  has,  as  he  fears  to  admit,  Mr.  Glen- 
nie's teaching  that  Christians  only  became  tolerant  from 
expediency  !  This  is  Mr.  Buckle's  own  teaching,  as  far  as 
concerns  the  immediate  cause.  But  it  is  not  the  ultimate 
cause,  which  Buckle  has  so  frequently  pointed  out  in  his 
History  ; "  while,  as  for  Mr.'  Glennie's  teaching,  "  Not  in 
Christianity,  therefore,  which  ever  was  —  as  to  this  day, 
wherever  it  has  the  chance,  it  is — bitterly  anti-tolerationist," 
it  only  differs  in  being  involved  and  confused  from  Mr. 
Buckle's  contemptuous  reference  to  that  "  meddling  and  in- 
tolerant spirit  which,  in  every  age,  has  characterized  eccle- 
siastical legislation."12  Mr.  Glennie  then  goes  on  to  say 
that  the  principle  of  toleration  is  contrary  to  Christian  be- 
liefs, since  it  involves  a  denial  that  belief  in  its  dogmas  is 
necessary  for  salvation.13  And  Buckle,  instead  of  pointing 
out  that  it  does  nothing  of  the  sort,"  is  made  to  give  the 
totally  irrelevant  answer  that  the  Covenanters  were  ascetic. 
Mr.  Glennie,  in  defending  the  bigotry  and  intolerance  of  the 
Covenanters,  finds  it  necessary  to  point  out  to  Mr.  Buckle 
that  this  was  due  to  their  creed,  and  that,  however  pernicious 
this  creed  was,  they  should  be  treated  with  honor  for  the 
self-sacrificing  devotion  which  has  given  them  a  place  in  the 
history  of  Christian  fanaticism.  To  which  Mr.  Buckle  an- 
swers, that  he  can  not  excuse  this  fanaticism  on  the  score  of 
its  being  the  natural  result  of  Christian  teaching.15  What 
an  honorable  position  to  take — "  a  place  in  the  history  of 
Christian  fanaticism  !  "  Mr.  Glennie  deserves  credit  for  his 
powers  of  muddling  what  is  so  exceedingly  clear  in  the 
"History  of  Civilization."  Buckle  says  that  in  keeping 

11  Compare,  e.  g.,  chap.  viii.  and  p.  481,  vol.  i. 

12  See  vol.  i.,  pp.  520,  521,  524,  and  vol.  ii.,  p.  405,  of  the  "  History  of 
Civilization." 

13  Page  116. 

14  E.  g.,  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  i.,  p.  506. 

15  Page  118. 


APPENDIX.  46Y 

alive  Scottish  liberty  they  did  a  real  good.  "  Herein,  they 
did  a  deed  which  should  compensate  for  all  their  offenses, 
even  were  their  offenses  ten  times  as  great";1?  and  shows 
that  "  the  real  cause  of  their  conduct  was  the  spirit  of  their 
age,  and  the  peculiarities  of  their  position.  None  of  us  can 
be  sure  that  if  we  were  placed  exactly  as  they  were  placed 
we  should  have  acted  differently.  ...  In  Scotland  the  age 
was  evil,  and  the  evil  rose  to  the  surface.  .  .  .  We  should, 
in  fairness  to  the  Scotch  clergy,  admit  that  the  condition  of 
their  country  affords  the  best  explanation  of  their  conduct. 
.  .  .  Let  us  not  be  too  forward  in  censuring  the  leading 
actors  in  that  great  crisis  through  which  Scotland  passed."  " 
In  this  there  is  sense  ;  but  where  is  the  honor  of  a  place  in 
Christian  fanaticism  ?  Is  it  likely,  too,  that  Buckle  would 
have  made  such  a  lame  answer  to  Mr.  Glennie's  extraordi- 
nary proposition,  as  merely  to  say  that  their  fanaticism  was 
not  the  "  natural  fruits  of  Christian  beliefs "  ?  He  would 
have  said  that  the  practice  of  Christianity  is  the  result  of 
the  state  of  civilization  ;  and,  moreover,  that  pure  Christi- 
anity inculcates  no  monstrous  persecution.  But  instead,  he 
only  "courteously"  admits  "that  there  was  something  in 
what"  Mr.  Glennie  has  said.18 

"  Mr.  Buckle  set  everything  on  style,"  says  Mr.  Glennie, 
"  attacht  (sic)  the  greatest  importance  to  its  cultivation,  and 
declared  that  it  so  influenced  men  that  that  alone  would  pre- 
serve one's  fame.  Hence  it  was  that  the  poets  were  so  pop- 
ular, and  that  the  influence  of  their  pernicious  fancies  was 
so  great."  And  then  he  actually  adds  :  "  My  dissent  from 
this  rather  strongly  expressed  opinion  as  to  the  influence  of 
the  poets  only  provoked  a  more  explicitly  contemptuous  de- 
nunciation of  them,  except  the  two  or  three  greatest,  and 
particularly  Shakespeare  and  Moliere."  ]  I  will  merely  quote 
a  few  words  from  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization  "  :  "  In 
England,  especially,  there  is,  among  physical  inquirers,  an 

16  "  History  of  Civilization,"  ii.,  p.  259. 

17  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  257-259. 
is  «  pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  121. 

19  Page  169. 


408  APPENDIX. 

avowed  determination  to  separate  philosophy  from  poetry, 
and  to  look  upon  them,  not  only  as  different,  but  as  hostile. 
Among  that  class  of  thinkers,  whose  zeal  and  ability  are  be- 
yond all  praise,  and  to  whom  we  owe  almost  unbounded  ob- 
ligations, there  does  undoubtedly  exist  a  very  strong  opinion, 
that,  in  their  own  pursuit,  the  imagination  is  extremely  dan- 
gerous, as  leading  to  speculations,  of  which  the  basis  is  not 
yet  assured,  and  generating  a  desire  to  catch  too  eagerly  at 
distant  glimpses  before  the  intermediate  ground  has  been 
traversed.  That  the  imagination  has  this  tendency  is  unde- 
niable. But  they  who  object  to  it  on  this  account,  and  who 
would,  therefore,  divorce  poetry  from  philosophy,  have,  I 
apprehend,  taken  a  too  limited  view  of  the  functions  of  the 
human  mind,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  truth  is  obtained. 
There  is,  in  poetry,  a  divine  and  prophetic  power,  and  an  in- 
sight into  the  turn  and  aspect  of  things,  which,  if  properly 
used,  would  make  it  the  ally  of  science  instead  of  the  enemy. 
By  the  poet,  nature  is  contemplated  on  the  side  of  the  emo- 
tions ;  by  the  man  of  science,  on  the  side  of  the  understand- 
ing. But  the  emotions  are  as  much  a  part  of  us  as  the  un- 
derstanding ;  they  are  as  truthful  ;  they  are  as  likely  to  be 
right.  Though  their  view  is  different,  it  is  not  capricious. 
They  obey  fixed  laws  ;  they  follow  an  orderly  and  uniform 
course  ;  they  run  in  sequences  ;  they  have  their  logic  and 
method  of  inference.  Poetry,  therefore,  is  a  part  of  philos- 
ophy, simply  because  the  emotions  are  a  part  of  the  mind. 
If  the  man  of  science  despises  their  teaching,  so  much  the 
worse  for  him.  He  has  only  half  his  weapons  ;  his  arsenal 
is  unfilled.  .  .  .  And  I  can  hardly  doubt  that  one  of  the 
reasons  why  we,  in  England,  made  such  wonderful  discoveries 
during  the  seventeenth  century,  was  because  that  century 
was  also  the  great  age  of  English  poetry.  The  two  mighti- 
est intellects  our  country  has  produced  are  Shakespeare  and 
Newton  ;  and  that  Shakespeare  should  have  preceded  was,  I 
believe,  no  casual  or  unmeaning  event.  Shakespeare  and 
the  poets  sowed  the  seed  which  Newton  and  the  philosophers 
reaped." s  And  again  he  says  :  "  To  these  cases  of  the  ap- 
80  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  602-504. 


APPENDIX.  469 

plication  of  what  may  be  termed  the  ideal  method  to  the  in- 
organic world,  I  will  add  another  from  the  organic  depart- 
ment of  nature.  Those  among  you  who  are  interested  in 
botany,  are  aware  that  the  highest  morphological  generaliza- 
tion we  possess  respecting  plants  is  the  great  law  of  meta- 
morphosis, according  to  which  the  stamens,  pistils,  corollas, 
bracts,  petals,  and  so  forth,  of  every  plant  are  simply  modi- 
fied leaves.  It  is  now  known  that  these  various  parts,  dif- 
ferent in  shape,  different  in  color,  different  in  function,  are 
successive  stages  of  the  leaf — epochs,  as  it  were,  of  its  his- 
tory. The  question  naturally  arises,  who  made  this  discovery  ? 
Was  it  some  inductive  investigator  ?  .  ,.  .  Not  so.  The  dis- 
covery was  made  by  Goethe,  the  greatest  poet  Germany  has 
produced,  and  one  of  the  greatest  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
And  he  made  it,  not  in  spite  of  being  a  poet,  but  because 
he  was  a  poet." 21 

These  few  passages  are  sufficient,  I  should  suppose,  to 
convince  even  Mr.  Glennie  that  he  has  made  an  egregious 
blunder  in  attributing  to  Mr.  Buckle  sentiments  adverse  to 
poetry  ;  and  that  he  might  easily  have  corrected  his  memory 
or  his  note-book  in  the  course  of  the  twelve  years  which 
elapsed  between  this  reported  conversation  and  the  publica- 
tion of  it.22  The  fact  is  that  Buckle  was  constantly  quoting 
poetry  ;  that  he  had  all  the  best  parts  of  the  poets  by  heart ; 
and  that  he  read  Shakespeare,  Homer,  Goethe,  Dante,  Milton, 
Corneille,  and  Moliere  with  ever-increasing  admiration  and 
pleasure.  No.  What  he  probably  did  say  to  Mr.  Glennie 
was,  that  ideas  alone  would  not  produce  a  good  style  ;  and 
that  to  acquire  a  good  style  it  was  necessary  to  study  the 
best  authors,  as  he  himself  had  done.  This  was  another  les- 
son kindly  given  to  Mr.  Glennie,  which  he  would  have  done 
well  to  profit  by. 

21  "  Lecture  on  the  Influence  of  Women  on  the  Progress  of  Knowledge." 
S2  It  is  not  a  little  extraordinary  that  Mr.  Glennie  makes  this  mistake, 

seeing  that  he  admits  having  read  Buckle's  published  writings  (preface,  p. 

xiii.),  and  particularly  mentions  having  heard  the  lecture,  from  which  he 

walked  home,  as  he  kindly  informs  the  world,  "  to  the  rooms  I  then  had  in 

Mount  Street "  (p.  102). 


470  APPENDIX. 

But  Mr.  Glennie  is  not  content  with  attributing  a  dislike 
to  the  poets  to  Mr.  Buckle  ;  he  also  makes  him  deny  the 
value  of  the  imagination  in  science.  "  I  got  into  discussion 
with  Mr.  Buckle,"  he  says,  "  on  the  necessary  qualifications 
of  the  historian.  I  maintained,  and  he  at  length  partially 
admitted  that,  for  the  truly  great  historian  was  requisite, 
not  only  the  analytic  power  of  the  philosopher,  but  the 
sympathetic  insight  of  the  poet."  *  •  Now,  if  there  was  any 
one  thing  which  Buckle  insisted  on  more  than  another  in  all 
his  writings,  it  was  precisely  this.  The  whole  of  the  lecture 
he  gave  particularly  turned  on  it ;  the  "  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion "  teems  with  passages  deprecating  the  neglect  of  the  ima- 
gination, which  he  shows  to  be  one  of  the  most  important 
means  of  scientific  investigation.  After  the  passages  which 
I  have  quoted  above,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  quote  any 
more  ;  yet,  since  Mr.  Glennie  may  fancy  that  this  does  not 
apply  to  history,  I  will  quote  yet  another  passage — but  one 
from  the  many  which  might  be  quoted.  In  his  account  of 
the  Scotch  intellect,  he  compares  Hume  and  Adam  Smith  : 
"  But  Hume,  though  a  most  accomplished  reasoner,  as  well  as 
a  profound  and  fearless  thinker,  had  not  the  comprehensive- 
ness of  Adam  Smith,  nor  had  he  that  invaluable  quality  of 
the  imagination  without  which  no  one  can  so  transport  him- 
self into  past  ages  as  to  realize  the  long  and  progressive 
movements  of  society,  always  fluctuating,  yet,  on  the  whole, 
steadily  advancing.  How  unimaginative  he  was  appears, 
not  only  from  the  sentiments  he  expressed,  but  likewise  from 
many  traits  in  his  private  life.  It  appears,  also,  in  the  very 
color  and  mechanism  of  his  language  ;  that  beautiful  and 
chiseled  style  in  which  he  habitually  wrote,  polished  as 
marble,  but  cold  as  marble  too,  and  wanting  that  fiery  enthu- 
siasm and  those  bursts  of  tempestuous  eloquence  which,  ever 
and  anon,  great  objects  naturally  inspire,  and  which  rouse 
men  to  their  inmost  depths.  This  it  was,  which,  in  his 
*  History  of  England ' — that  exquisite  production  of  art, 
which,  in  spite  of  its  errors,  will  be  admired  as  long  as  taste 
remain  among  us — prevented  him  from  sympathizing  with 
23  »pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  314. 


APPENDIX.  471 

those  bold  and  generous  natures,  who,  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, risked  their  all  to  preserve  the  liberty  of  their  country. 
His  imagination  was  not  strong  enough  to  picture  the  whole 
of  that  great  century,  with  its  vast  discoveries,  its  longings 
after  the  unknown,  its  splendid  literature,  and,  what  was  bet- 
ter than  all  these,  its  stern  determination  to  vindicate  free- 
dom, and  to  put  down  tyranny.  His  clear  and  powerful  un- 
derstanding saw  these  things  separately,  and  in  their  various 
parts,  but  could  not  fuse  them  into  a  single  form  because  he 
lacked  that  peculiar  faculty  which  assimilates  the  past  to 
the  present,  and  enables  the  mind  to  discern  both  with  al- 
most equal  ease.  That  Great  Rebellion,  which  he  ascribed 
to  the  spirit  of  faction,  and  the  leaders  of  which  he  turned 
into  ridicule,  was  but  the  continuation  of  a  movement  which 
can  be  clearly  traced  to  the  twelfth  century,  and  of  which 
such  events  as  the  invention  of  printing,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Reformation,  were  merely  successive  symptoms. 
For  all  this,  Hume  cared  nothing.  In  regard  to  philosophy, 
and  in  regard  to  the  purely  speculative  parts  of  religious 
doctrines,  his  penetrating  genius  enabled  him  to  perceive 
that  nothing  could  be  done,  except  by  a  spirit  of  fearless 
and  unrestrained  liberty.  But  this  was  the  liberty  of  his 
own  class  ;  the  liberty  of  thinkers,  and  not  of  actors.  His  ab- 
sence of  imagination  prevented  him  from  extending  the  range 
of  his  sympathy  beyond  the  intellectual  classes,  that  is,  be- 
yond the  classes  of  whose  feelings  he  was  directly  cogni- 
zant. It  would,  therefore,  appear,  that  his  political  errors 
were  due,  not,  as  is  commonly  said,  to  his  want  of  research, 
but  rather  to  the  coldness  of  his  temperament.  It  was  this 
which  made  him  stop  where  he  did,  and  which  gave  to  his 
works  the  singular  appearance  of  a  profound  and  original 
thinker,  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  advocating 
practical  doctrines,  so  illiberal,  that,  if  enforced,  they  would 
lead  to  despotism,  and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  advocating 
speculative  doctrines,  so  fearless  and  enlightened,  that  they 
were  not  only  far  in  advance  of  his  own  age,  but  have,  in 
some  degree,  outstripped  even  the  age  in  which  we  live." ! 
24  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  ii.,  pp.  458-460. 


472  APPENDIX. 

This  is  what  Mr.  Glennie  calls  opposing  the  value  of  the 
imagination  of  the  historian  ! 

The  next  long  conversation  which  Mr.  Glennie  reports  to 
us  is  on  the  non-effect  of  moral  truth  on  the  progress  of  civ- 
ilization. What  Buckle  is  made  to  say,  when  there  is  any- 
thing at  all  in  his  remarks,  is  merely  a  succession  of  extracts 
from  the  "History  of  Civilization";  and  what  Mr.  Glennie 
says  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  way  in  which  he  utterly 
misunderstands  Buckle's  position,  and  the  way  in  which  he 
ventures  to  say  things  which  not  only  Buckle  but  any  edu- 
cated man  could  easily  refute.36  However,  Mr.  Buckle  was, 
as  usual,  wof ully  defeated,  and  meekly  says,  "  Well,  I  think 
it  is  time  for  lunch."  After  lunch,  however,  Buckle  takes 
heart  of  grace,  and  renews  the  conversation  with  the  new 
weapon  of  the  state  of  morality  in  the  middle  ages.  "  Mr. 
Buckle  thought  he  had  me  there,"  says  Mr.  Glennie.28  But 
how  miserable  was  his  defeat !  Mr.  Glennie  was  quite  calm  ; 
his  cheeks  blanched  not ;  he  firmly  withstood  the  shock  ; 
and  then  quietly  overwhelmed  his  antagonist  with  a  speech 
of  two  or  three  pages  in  length.  It  was  Prince  Giglio  and 
Captain  Hedzoff  over  again.  Mr.  Glennie's  argument  was, 
of  course,  quite  unanswerable.  Mr.  Buckle  had,  indeed, 
caught  a  Tartar  when  he  "  thought  he  had  him  there,"  and 
could  only  slink  away  crestfallen  to  the  innermost  recesses  of 
his  tent. 

It  is  a  remarkable  thing,  and  speaks  volumes  for  Mr. 
Buckle's  courage,  that,  notwithstanding  his  repeated  and 
almost  invariable  defeats,  he  should  still  continue  to  wage 
an  impotent  war  against  his  invincible  antagonist.  The  sub- 
ject of  the  next  conversation  is  the  materialistic  view  of  the 
greatest  happiness,27  a  subject  in  which  Buckle  was  deeply 

85  Mr.  Glennie  says,  for  example  (pp.  198,  199),  that  Buckle  attributes 
the  rise  of  every  new  religion  to  the  acquirement  of  new  knowledge; 
whereas,  what  Buckle  did  say  was,  that  no  new  religion  advances  civiliza- 
tion or  influences  the  people,  unless  it  is  accompanied  by  an  increase  of 
knowledge.  It  is  merely  the  old  religion  with  a  new  name,  and  the  people 
act  as  they  did  before  it  was  introduced. 

SB  «  piigrim  Memories,"  p.  200. 

27  Ibid.,  pp.  206-219. 


APPENDIX. 


interested.  In  this  the  reader  will  notice  with  astonishment 
that,  while  Mr.  Glennie  delivers  himself  of  some  three  hun- 
dred lines  of  print,  Buckle  is  unable  to  manage  even  one 
hundred.  Perhaps  some  Philistine,  who  has  not  read  Mr. 
Glennie's  volume,  may  urge  that  Buckle,  being  a  good  writer 
and  conversationalist,  might  have  made  his  sentences  more 
pithy,  straight,  and  to  the  point  ;  while  Mr.  Glennie  labored 
on,  like  the  horse  in  the  mill,  ever  circling,  but  never  nearer 
to  the  point  around  which  he  works.  But  if  he  reads,  he 
will  find  this  theory  untenable,  for  Buckle's  style  in  this  con- 
versation is  no  better  than  Mr.  Glennie's.  He  will  find  no 
trace  of  that  manysidedness  which  is  so  distinguishing  a 
characteristic  of  Buckle's  reasoning,  and  which  we  may  illus- 
trate, for  instance,  by  a  reference  to  the  letter  on  J.  S.  Mill 
which  he  wrote  from  Cairo.28  The  doctrine  here  attributed 
to  him  is  poorly  materialistic.  In  it  there  is  no  room  for 
love.  Buckle  had  no  love  !  No  room  for  poetry.  No  room 
for  anything  but  cut-and-dried  selfishness  !  There  is,  indeed, 
nothing  new  in  this  conversation  beyond  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Glennie  understands  the  subject  no  better  than  he  does  Mr. 
Buckle. 

It  would  be  wearisome  tp  the  reader,  and  perhaps  it  is 
not  possible  for  me,  exhaustively  to  criticise  all  the  conver- 
sations which  Mr.  Glennie  has  reported.  We  can  not  read 
them  without  seeing  that  he  is  deeply  indebted  to  Buckle  ; 
that  the  barren  soil  has  brought  forth  something  it  would  not 
otherwise  have  been  capable  of.  But  the  crop  is  so  intermin- 
gled with  tares  and  weeds  that  it  is  valueless.  What  I  have 
just  said  of  the  last  conversation  is  again  applicable  to  the 
next  —  it  is  all  Mr.  Buckle  encouraging  Mr.  Glennie  to  state  his 
opinions,  and  no  Mr.  Buckle  then  stating  his,  and  examining 
where  they  differed.  But  that  the  conversation  took  place 
as  Mr.  Glennie  writes  it,  I,  for  one,  do  not  believe.  We  may 
allow,  for  instance,  that  Mr.  Glennie  quoted  Aristotle  in  the 
original  Greek,  as  he  before  says  he  quoted  Socrates.29  The 
thing  is  possible,  though  hardly  probable.  But,  that  he  had 

28  See  p.  387. 

29  "  Pilgrim  Memories,"  pp.  75,  222. 


474:  APPENDIX. 

to  add  a  translation  for  Buckle's  benefit !  If  the  translation 
was  meant  for  the  reader  only,  then  why  was  it  not  put  in  a 
note,  like  the  translation  to  the  quotation  which  he  says  he 
made  from  Hegel  in  the  original  German  ? 80  But  it  will  not 
do  to  pass  all  that  follows  over.  There  is  one,  in  which  Mr. 
Glennie  professes  to  give  an  account  of  a  conversation  he 
again  had  with  Mr.  Buckle,  on  the  relative  influence  of  moral 
and  intellectual  knowledge,  and  in  which  a  German  clergy- 
man who  was  traveling  with  another  party  took  part.  Of  the 
one,  he  merely  says  :  "  Mr.  Buckle,  with  his  deism,  which, 
notwithstanding  all  his  anti-theological  zeal,  he  but  obscurely 
saw  to  be  but  a  specially  indefensible  theology,  agreed  with 
the  German."  Of  himself  he  says  :  "For  myself,  however, 
I  thought  with  Hume,  the  great  founder  of  the  Scottish 
school,  and  the  coinitiator  with  Kant  of  a  new  period  of 
European  philosophy.  .  .  .  Nor,  as  I  maintained,  was  this 
a  mere  open  question.  .  .  .  As  to  the  origin  of  this  hypoth- 
esis, it  is  to  be  found  in  the  earlier  stage  of  men's  concep- 
tions of  causation,  which  Hume  (in  that  profound  theory 
of  'The  Natural  History  of  Religion,'  of  which  Comte's 
*  Law  of  the  Three  Periods  '  was  little  more  than  a  f  ormu- 
lizing)  was  the  first  adequately  to  distinguish  as  the  theo- 
logical stage,  in  its  three  progressive  periods  of  vulgar 
polytheism  (called  by  Comte  'fetichism'),  polytheism,  and 
monotheism." 81 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  Mr.  Glennie  is  telling 
this  to  Mr.  Buckle,  and  then  will  turn  with  me  to  the  "  His- 
tory of  Civilization,"  Vol.  I,  p.  229,  Note  22,  and  read  as 
follows,  on  Hume's  method  :  "  The  historical  facts  he  intro- 
duces are  merely  illustrations  ;  as  any  one  will  see  who  will 
read  *  The  Natural  History  of  Religion  '  in  '  Hume's  Philo- 
sophical Works,'  Edinburgh,  1826,  Yol.  IV.,  pp.  435-513.  I 
may  mention  that  there  is  a  considerable  similarity  between 
the  views  advocated  in  this  remarkable  essay  and  the  relig- 
ious stages  of  Comte's  '  Philosophic  Positive ';  for  Hume's 

80  A  translation,  moreover,  which  is  poor  literally,  and  grammatically 
bad.     See  "  Pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  240,  note. 
.    31  "Pilgrim  Memories,"  pp.  250-252. 


APPENDIX. 

early  form  of  polytheism  is  evidently  the  saml 
fetichism,  from  which  both  these  writers  believe  that  mono- 
theism  subsequently  arose,  as  a  later  and  more  refined  ab- 
straction. That  this  was  the  course  adopted  by  the  human 
mind  is  highly  probable,  and  is  confirmed  by  the  learned 
researches  of  Mr.  Grote.  See  his  '  History  of  Greece,'  Vol. 
I,  pp.  462,  497,  Vol.  V.,  p.  22.  The  opposite  and  more 
popular  opinion,  of  monotheism  preceding  idolatry,  was  held 
by  most  of  the  great  earlier  writers,  and  is  defended  by 
many  moderns,  and  among  others  by  Dr.  Whewell  ('  Bridge- 
water  Treatise,'  p.  256),  who  expresses  himself  with  consid- 
erable confidence  ;  see  also  '  Letters  from  Warburton  to 
Kurd,'  p.  239.  Compare  Thirlwall's  '  History  of  Greece,' 
Vol.  I.,  p.  183,  London,  1835,  with  <  Einige  Funken  des  Mono- 
theismus '  of  Kant,  '  Kritik  der  reinen  Vernunf  t,'  in  '  Kant's 
Werke,'  Vol.  II.,  p.  455." 

The  next  conversation  is  on  the  question  of  hereditary 
genius,  which  Buckle  had  justly  said  was  not  proved.  In 
this  conversation  Mr.  Glennie  does  not  make  him  say  any- 
thing new  ;  but  he  says  in  the  course  of  it  :  "  And  with 
characteristic  frankness,  he  pointed  to  the  phrenological  indi- 
cations of  his  own  head — his  forehead  having  been,  before  he 
became  bald,  not  even  apparently  by  any  means  very  high  or 
broad ;  and  yet — but  it  was  the  circumstances  of  his 
life." 32 

This  passage  is  "  not  even  apparently  by  any  means  very  " 
clear,  or  grammatical.  What  does  Mr.  Glennie  mean  ?  That 
Buckle  having  lost  his  hair  had  gained  a  "  phrenological  in- 
dication ?  "  That  having  lost  his  hair  his  forehead  suddenly 
bulged  out  and  became  "  apparently  by  every  means  very 
high  and  broad  ?  "  Or  does  he  mean  to  say  that  his  forehead 
was  an  imposture,  and  looked  high  only  because  he  was  bald  ? 
What  were  the  "  circumstances  of  his  life  "  ?  To  bewilder 
us  still  more,  Mr.  Glennie  adds  the  following  mysterious  note 
after  the  word  "  frankness  "  in  this  passage  :  "  Compare  an- 
ecdote above  quoted  from  the  '  Atlantic  Monthly.' "  What 

32  «  Pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  339. 


476  APPENDIX. 

anecdote  ?  The  "  Atlantic  Monthly  "  says  nothing  whatever 
on  the  question.  As  it  happens,  I  do  recollect  the  circum- 
stance to  which  Mr.  Glennie  thus  obscurely  alludes,  though 
I  can  not  unravel  the  mysteries  of  his  report.  In  talking  on 
phrenology,  Buckle,  as  a  kind  of  argument  that  working  the 
brain  did  raise  the  forehead,  pointed  to  his  own,  and  told 
Mr.  Glennie  that  as  a  youth  he  had  had  a  very  low  forehead, 
whereas  now  it  was  patent  to  all  (and  may  be  seen  by  the 
only  photograph  ever  taken  of  him)  that  his  forehead  was 
remarkably  high  and  broad.  Let  the  reader  understand  this 
from  Mr.  Glennie's  report,  if  he  can. 

What  is  the  value  of  conversations  recorded  as  are  these  ? 
They  give  us  no  new  knowledge,  for  all  that  is  of  value  in 
them  had  been  already  published  before  Mr.  Glennie  wrote. 
They  give  us  not  only  no  true  idea  of  what  Buckle  was  in 
conversation,  but  they  do  give  us  a  most  wrong  and  harmful 
and  untrue  idea.  Buckle  is  used  simply  as  a  peg  upon  which 
Mr.  Glennie  may  hang  his  own  views  ;  Buckle  begs  expla- 
nations, and  Mr.  Glennie  explains  ;  Buckle  says  "  How  so  ?  " 
and  Mr.  Glennie  adds  some  more  explanation.  Look  at  the 
conversation  related  on  pages  345-364  ;  would  not  any  one, 
unacquainted  with  Buckle's  works,  put  him  down  as  a  fool  ? 
Buckle  is  always  wandering  from  the  subject  ;  logical  Mr. 
Glennie  is  always  bringing  him  back.  Buckle  seeks  to  es- 
cape by  turning  the  conversation  ; 8S  victorious  Mr.  Glennie, 
with  true  magnanimity,  allows  it.  Buckle  has  the  misfortune 
to  utter  the  word  "  toleration  "  ;  but  Mr.  Glennie  is  instant- 
ly down  upon  him  with  :  "  I  exceedingly  dislike  the  word. 
Toleration,  properly  speaking,  can  be,  and  has  in  fact  his- 
torically been,  offered  only  by  those  who  endeavored  to  carry 
off  their  inability  to  suppress  by  an  insolent  assumption  of 
superiority  in  permitting.  Letting  the  word,  however,  pass, 
my  views,"  etc.,  etc.34  As  if  Mr.  Glennie  ever  dared  to 
talk  like  this !  or  as  if  Buckle,  despite  his  marvelous  pa- 
tience, would  have  allowed  so  insolent  an  "  assumption  of 
superiority  of  permitting ! "  Mr.  Glennie  here  talks  some 

33  Page  353.  &  Page  350. 


APPENDIX.  477 


four  hundred  lines  ;  while  Buckle  does  not  take  even  one 
hundred  and  fifty.  Mr  Glennie  quotes  a  passage  from  the 
Greek  Testament,  and  translates  it  for  Buckle's  benefit.35 
Therefore  we  must  draw  the  conclusion  that  Buckle  did  not 
know  Greek,  while  Mr.  Glennie  knew  Aristotle's  works,  Soc- 
rates, and  the  New  Testament  by  heart.  He  is,  indeed,  a 
wonderful  man,  with  a  wonderful  memory  ;  a  memory,  how- 
ever, which  nevertheless  is  strangely  unable  to  retain  Buckle's 
conversation.  Look  again  at  the  matter  of  these  conversa- 
tions. Mr.  Glennie  is  allowed  to  go  on  with  but  half  an- 
swers from  Buckle,  while  any  one  with  even  a  tolerable  ac- 
quaintance with  Buckle's  habit  of  thought  could  double 
them.  All  that  Mr.  Glennie  says  here  could  have  been  ea- 
sily refuted  out  of  the  "  History  of  Civilization." 

At  last  Buckle — tired  of  Mr.  Glennie's  arguments  about 
"  Oneness  "  and  "  Mutual  Determination,"  and  endeavors  to 
prove  from  his  inner  consciousness  the  great  effect  of  moral 
laws  on  the  progress  of  civilization — told  him  that  if  he 
wanted  to  prove  it  he  must  do  so  historically,  and  offered 
him  all  the  assistance  in  his  power.  So  magnificent  an  offer 
was,  of  course,  accepted  with  proper  gratitude  by  Mr.  Glen- 
nie, who  said,  "  Of  course  I  shall  acknowledge  the  assistance 
from  you  in  my  preface,"  or  words  to  that  effect.  But 
Buckle  answered  that  he  need  do  nothing  of  the  sort :  "  I 
have  made  my  reputation  ;  you  have  yours  still  to  make." 
I  have  seen  no  mention  of  this  conversation  in  Mr.  Glennie's 
"  Pilgrim  Memories." 

If  these  conversations  are  valueless,  there  yet  remains  a 
good  deal  of  description  of  scenery,  which  may  be  interest- 
ing, though  it  can  not,  of  course,  differ  very  much  from  the 
descriptions  in  "  Murray's  Guide,"  if  both  be  true.  But  the 
reader  will  find  that  the  resemblance  is  even  greater  than  he 
would  at  first  have  been  led  to  expect,  as  though  "  Murray  " 
had  had  a  prophetic  view  of  what  Mr.  Glennie  was  going  to 
write,  and  had  forestalled  him.  I  put  a  few  passages  side 
by  side  : 

35  Page  363. 


478 


APPENDIX. 


Mr.  Porter,  in  "Murray's  Guide," 
published  1868. 

"  Damascus  and  its  plain  burst 
at  once  upon  our  view.  The 
change  is  so  sudden,  so  unex- 
pected, that  it  seems  like  some 
glorious  vision.  .  .  .  This  distance 
lends  enchantment  to  the  view. 
.  .  .  Tapering  minarets  and  swell- 
ing domes,  tipped  with  golden 
crescents,  rise  up  in  every  direc- 
tion from  the  confused  mass  of 
white  terraced  roofs;  while  in 
some  places  their  glittering  tops 
appear  above  the  deep  green  fo- 
liage, like  diamonds  in  the  midst 
of  emeralds  .  .  .  Away  on  the 
south  the  eye  follows  ...  a  long 
green  meadow,  stretching  from 
near  the  mouth  of  the  gorge  to 
the  western  side  of  the  city.  The 
Barada  winds  through  it  ..." 
(p.  435). 

And  again  : 

Mr.  Porter. 

"Napoleon  called  it  the  key 
of  Palestine.  .  .  .  The  Phoenician 
Accho  took  the  Greek  name  Ptol- 
emais.  ...  In  1229  it  became  the 
chief  seat  of  the  Kingdom  of  Je- 
rusalem, and  the  headquarters 
of  the  Templars,  the  Teutonic 
Knights,  and  the  Knights  of  St. 
John.  The  latter  took  the  title 
of  St.  John  of  'Akka ;  which,  in 
the  French  orthography,  St.  Jean 
d'Acre,  became  the  current  ap- 
pellation of  the  city  in  Europe. 
The  city  was  now  a  Babel  of 
tongues,  races,  and  rulers.  Gib- 


Mr.  Glennie,  in  "  Pilgrim  Memo- 
ries," published  1875. 

"  And  suddenly  nere  there 
bursts  on  us  a  wondrous  scene. 
Below  us,  at  the  foot  of  the  bar- 
ren mountains,  stretched,  far  aa 
the  eye,  in  the  clear  Eastern  air, 
could  see,  a  vast  desert.  But  in 
its  center  was  a  long  strip,  wide 
toward  the  north,  and  narrowing 
southward,  of  the  most  gloriously 
rich  vegetation.  Amid  the  deep 
green  foliage  was  a  confused  mass 
of  white  terraced  roofs.  Over 
these  rose  countless  swelling 
domes  and  tapering  minarets, 
glittering,  here  and  there,  like 
diamonds  set  with  emeralds.  And 
outside  this  Paradise-city,  and 
between  it  and  the  desert,  lay  a 
wide  and  beautiful  meadow,  in 
the  midst  of  which  gleamed  a 
winding  stream  "  (p.  450). 


Mr.  Glennie. 

"  Our  first  day's  journey  was 
down  to  the  sea  at  Akka — the 
*  Key  of  Palestine,'  as  it  was 
called  by  Napoleon — St.  Jean 
d' Acre.  .  .  .  Soon  after,  we  passed 
through  the  gates,  and  rode  along 
streets  that  occupy  the  site  of 
those  of  the  Phoenician  Accho 
and  Greek  Ptolemais  ;  of  what 
was  once  the  chief  place  of  the 
mediaeval  kingdom  of  Jerusalem ; 
the  headquarters  of  the  Knights 
of  the  Temple,  the  Teutonic 
Knights,  and  the  Knights  of  St. 
John  (from  whom  the  town  has 


APPENDIX.  479 


bon  well  remarks  .  .  .  'a  mourn-  its  modern  name  of  St.  Jean 
ful  and  solitary  silence  prevailed  d'Acre) ;  the  general  gathering- 
along  the  toast  which  had  so  long  place  of  the  Crusaders ;  and  the 
resounded  with  the  WOKLD'S  DE-  seat  of  those  congresses  in  which 
BATE  ' "  (pp.  355-357).  all  the  princes  of  Europe  met, 

when  these  now  silent  shores 
'resounded,'  as  again  they  may, 
4  with  the  world's  debate.'— GIB- 
BON, '  Decline  and  Fall,'  vol.  vii., 
close  of  chapter  on  '  Crusades.'  " 

I  have  no  more  space  fx>r  any  further  illustration  of  this 
curious  identity  between  the  versions  of  Mr.  Porter  and 
Mr.  Glennie.  But  the  curious  reader  may  readily  find  some 
more  for  himself  by  examining  "Murray"  whenever  he 
comes  across  a  descriptive  passage  in  the  "  Pilgrim  Memo- 
ries." 

There  remains  but  one  more  subject,  which  Mr.  Glennie 
will  doubtlessly  be  grateful  to  me  for  calling  attention  to. 
"I  was,  I  believe,"  says  Mr.  Glennie,  "myself  the  first  to 
make  any  inquiry  about  Mr.  Buckle's  grave.  In  answer  to 
a  letter  of  mine,  Dr.  Barclay  thus  wrote,  under  date  Beirut, 
November  24,  1864 :  '  I  also  wrote  at  the  same  time  to 
Mr.  Rogers,  H.  B.  M.  Consul  at  Damascus,  asking,  as  you 
desired,  for  a  pencil  sketch  of  the  grave  ;  and  in  reply  was 
informed  that  not  even  a  stone  or  mark  of  any  kind  indi- 
cated the  spot  of  interment !  Shortly  afterward,  Mr.  R. 
came  on  to  Beirut,  when  I  spoke  to  him  on  the  subject,  and 
showed  him  your  letter.'  Toward  the  close  of  1865,  Mr. 
Rogers  was  visited  by  his  sister.  And  through  her  zeal  it 
was  that,  in  the  autumn  of  1866,  nearly  four  years  and  a 
half  after  his  death,  the  grave  of  Mr.  Buckle  was  at  length 
marked  by  a  simple  monument." 

Now,  I  do  not  know  what  impression  this  passage  leaves 
on  the  mind  of  the  reader ;  but  on  my  first  perusal  it  ap- 
peared to  me  that  Mr.  Glennie  claimed  for  himself  the  honor 
of  having  directed  the  attention  of  Miss  Rogers  to  the  fact 
that  there  was  no  memorial  marking  Buckle's  last  resting- 
se  "Pilgrim  Memories,"  p.  468. 


480 


APPENDIX. 


place.  No  doubt  Mr.  Glennie  did  not  suppose  that  such  a 
construction  could  be  put  upon  his  words,  and  will  be  only 
too  happy  to  have  the  matter  clearly  set  forth.  The  truth 
is,  he  had  not  the  remotest  connection  with  it.  He,  no  doubt, 
did  write  a  letter  to  Dr.  Barclay  asking  for  the  particulars 
of  Buckle's  death,  and  no  doubt  asked  at  the  same  time  for 
a  sketch  or  photograph  of  the  tomb  which  he,  as  every  one 
else,  supposed  was  there,  for  the  purpose  of  ornamenting  his 
"Pilgrim  Memories."  Dr.  Barclay  wrote  back  to  say  there 
was  none  ;  and  there  the  matter  dropped.  This  was  in  No- 
vember, 1864.  Toward  the  end  of  1865,  Miss  Rogers  went 
out  to  join  her  brother,  who  was  Consul  at  Damascus  ;  and 
on  February  8,  1866,  accompanied  him  to  the  Protestant 
cemetery,  to  visit  the  grave  of  a  near  relative.  She  went 
with  the  full  expectation  of  also  seeing  Buckle's  tomb;  and 
was  greatly  surprised,  and  very  much  shocked,  to  find  no- 
thing but  a  rounded  mound  over  his  remains.  "Buckle's 

grave  is  not  far  from  X 's,"  she  writes  home  two  days 

later,  "  but  it  is  unmarked  1  I  am  surprised  that  no  orders 
have  been  given  for  a  stone  to  mark  the  resting-place  of  such 
a  man  !  I  should  like  to  receive  instructions  from  some  of 
his  admirers  to  have  a  simple  slab  put  over  the  spot,  before 
people  forget  where  it  is.  It  would  not  cost  much,  for  I 
would  draw  the  inscription,  and  see  it  properly  cut."  This 
letter  was  sent  by  Mrs.  Rogers  to  her  friend  Major  Bell,  who 
knew  Buckle  well  from  his  writings,  and  greatly  admired 
him.  He  also  was  astonished  to  see  "  that  there  was  not  a 
stone  to  mark  the  place  of  Henry  Buckle's  remains,  and  at 
once  took  an  extract  from"  her  "letter,  and  communicated 
with  two  of  Buckle's  most  intimate  friends,  Mr.  John  Dick- 
inson and  Mr.  Henry  Huth.  Both  of  these  were  surprised 
and  shocked  to  hear  of  such  neglect."  Mr.  Henry  Huth 
wrote  at  once  to  Mrs.  Allatt,  Buckle's  only  surviving  sister, 
and  she  at  once  wrote  in  reply  :  "  Thank  you  so  much  for  so 
kindly  writing  to  me  on  a  subject  which  you  know  deeply 
interests  me.  After  my  dear  brother's  death  I  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  settling  of  affairs,  but  was  certainly  under  the 
^impression  that  a  stone  had  been  set."  She  gratefully  ac- 


APPENDIX.  481 

cepted  Miss  Rogers's  kind  proposal  to  put  up  a  tomb,  at  the 
same  time  sending  the  English  epitaph.  This  was  communi- 
cated through  Major  Bell  to  Miss  Rogers  at  Damascus,  who 
wrote  back  as  follows  :  "  Thank  you  heartily  for  helping  me 
to  fulfill  my  wish  with  regard  to  the  grave  of  Henry  Buckle. 
I  would  NOT  under  any  circumstances  have  left  Damascus 
with  his  last  resting-place  unmarked  and  unprotected ;  but 
of  course  it  was  more  consistent  that  his  sister  should  have 
the  opportunity  and  privilege  of  dedicating  a  stone  to  his 
memory,  and  of  giving  instructions  about  it.  Immediately 
on  my  return  from  Baalbec  I  went  to  the  stone-mason's  ba- 
zaar, and  visited  shop  after  shop,  carefully  inspecting  the 
work  in  marble  and  stone  then  in  hand,  that  I  might  judge 
of  the  comparative  skill  of  the  workmen,  and  of  the  kind  of 
design  they  would  be  most  likely  to  carry  out  satisfactorily. 
I  have  not  quite  decided  about  it  yet ;  but  my  chief  object 
will  be  to  insure  (as  far  as  the  nature  of  things  will  permit) 
the  durability  of  the  monument.  I  shall  try  to  interest  one 
of  my  native  friends  here  about  it,  that  the  grave  may  be 
kept  in  order  after  my  departure  from  this  city." 

The  tomb  was  finished  by  30th  October,  1866  ;  and  up  to 
the  year  1871,  or  1872,  Mr.  Glennie,  I  understand,  had  not 
even  heard  that  there  was  one  ;  but,  happening  to  see  a 
photograph  of  it  in  Major  Bell's  copy  of  the  "  History  of 
Civilization,"  he  wrote  on  the  26th  February  1875,  to  Mrs. 
Bell  :  "  I  remember  seeing  in  Major  Bell's  copy  of  Buckle's 
'  History  of  Civilization '  a  photograph  of  his  tombstone.  I 
should  be  much  obliged  if  your  friend  Miss  Rogers  would 
kindly  give  the  particulars  of  the  time,  circumstances,  etc., 
of  the  erection  of  the  tombstone."  This  Miss  Rogers  did  ; 
and  the  account  I  have  given,  showing  that  to  Miss  Rogers 
is  entirely  and  solely  due  the  honor  of  the  first  initiation,  as 
the  subsequent  erection  of  the  tombstone,  is  no  doubt  what 
Mr.  Glennie  intended  to  convey  to  his  readers  ;  but  he  has 
been  unfortunate  in  his  choice  of  language,  and  this  explana- 
tion therefore  became  necessary. 

I  have  now  done  with  Mr.  Glennie's  "Pilgrim  Memo- 
ries "  ;  and  trust  I  shall  never  have  to  resume  so  disagree- 

31 


482  APPENDIX. 

able  a  theme.  If  he  feel  aggrieved  at  my  treatment  of  his 
work,  he  has  only  himself  to  blame.  The  publication  of 
these  "  memories,"  made  it  incumbent  on  every  friend — nay, 
on  every  human  being  who  honors  justice  and  is  able  to 
wield  a  pen — to  defend  Buckle  from  the  insinuations  which 
they  convey  ;  and  shall  not  I,  who  loved  him,  vindicate  his 
memory  ?  In  so  doing,  I  have  restricted  myself  to  the  bare 
proof  of  the  worthlessness  of  Mr.  Glennie's  book  ;  and  I  sin- 
cerely hope  that  I  may  never  be  compelled  to  enlarge  on  a 
subject  which  I  have  taken  up  with  reluctance,  and  finish 
with  relief. 


SPECIAL  BIBLIOGEAPHT. 


A.  K.  H.  B.     See  under  "  Boyd." 

"Albion,  the  Liverpool,"  13th  April,  1863.     "  Keminiscences  of  Mr. 

Buckle."    See  "  Hale,  Oh." 
"Allgemeine  Zeitung,  die":   " Nachwirkung  des   ' philosophischen 

Radicalisms '  in  der  englischen  Litteratur."     Augsburg.     Nos. 

316,  317,  for  12th  and  13th  November,  1861,  pp.  5153-5155,  and 

5167-5171. 
"  Henry  Thomas  Buckle."     Ibid.,  No.  165,  for  14th  June,  1862, 

pp.  2745,  2746. 
"American  Quarterly  Church  Review  and  Ecclesiastical  Register." 

New  York.     8vo : 
"  Responsibility  of  Belief."    Art.  iii.,  vol.  xv.,  pp.  392-404,  No.  3 

(whole  No.  59),  for  October,  1863. 
"  The  Two  Theories  of  Civilization."    Art.  ii.,  vol.  xvi.,  pp.  20-34, 

No.  1  (whole  No.  61),  for  April,  1864. 
"  Positivism."    Art.  iii.    Ibid.,  pp.  35-56. 
"  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  England."     Art.  vi.,  vol.  xvii., 

pp.  103-119,  No.  1  (whole  No.  65),  for  April,  1865. 
"Athenaeum,  the,"  London.    4to: 

"  The  History  of  Civilization  in  England."    Pp.  850,  851,  No.  1549, 

for  4th  July,  1857. 
"  The  History  of  Civilization  in  England."    Pp.  717,  718,  No.  1753, 

for  1st  June,  1861. 
"  Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  Works  of  Henry  Thomas  Buckle." 

Pp.  801-803,  No.  2356,  for  21st  December,  1872. 
"  Reminiscences  of  Mr.  Buckle,"  by  J.  A.  Longmore.    Pp.  114-116, 

No.  2361,  for  25th  January,  1873. 

"  Copy  of  a  Letter  addressed  to  the  City  of  London  Chess  Maga- 
zine," by  von  der  Lasa.     P.  262,  No.  2469,  for  20th  February, 

1875. 


SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

"Atlantic  Monthly,"  the:    "Personal  Reminiscences  of  the  Late 
Henry  Thomas  Buckle,"  [by  Oh.  Hale].     Vol.  xi.,  pp.  488-499, 
No.  66,  for  April,  1863.     Boston.     8vo. 
"  Bell's  Weekly  Messenger,"  London,  fol. :  "  History  of  Civilization 

in  England."    No.  3365,  p.  6.     June  8th,  1861. 
"  Blackwood's  Edinburgh  Magazine,"  London: 
"  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization."    Vol.  Ixxxiv.,  pp.  515-535,  No. 

617,  for  November,  1858. 
"  Scotland  and  her  Accusers."    Vol.  xc.,  pp.  267-283,  No.  551,  for 

September,  1861. 
"  Mr.  Buckle's  Scientific  Errors."    Vol.  xc.,  pp.  582-596,  No.  553, 

for  November,  1861. 
"  Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  Works  of  Henry  Thomas  Buckle." 

Vol.  cxiv.,  pp.  382-388,  No.  695,  for  September,  1873. 
"  Blatter  fur  literarischer  Unterhaltung."    Leipsic.    4to  : 
"  Geschichte  der  Civilization  in  England."    Pp.  721-732,  No.  40, 

for  1st  October,  1861. 
Bouiller,  Francisque :  "  Moral  et  Progres,"  pp.  201-230.    Paris,  1875. 

8vo. 

B[oyd],  A.  K.  H.,  "Concerning  Man  and  his  Dwelling  Place."  In 
"Eraser's  Magazine,"  vol.  lix.,  pp.  645-661,  No.  354,  for  June, 
1859.  London. 

"Bradford  Review":   "The  History  of  Civilization  in  England." 
Pp.  6  and  6,  for  March  10  and  17,  1860,  Nos.  113  and  114, 
vol.  iii. 
Ibid.,  pp.  6  and  6,  Nos.  187  and  189,  for  July  6  and  13,  1861, 

vol.  v. 
Buckle,  Henry  Thomas :  "  History  of  Civilization  in  England,"  vol.  i. 

London,  1857,  8vo. 

Ibid.,  1858,  8vo.     Ibid.,  1861,  8vo.     Ibid.,  1864,  8vo. 
Buckle,  Henry  Thomas : 

"  History  of  Civilization  in  England."    Vol.  ii.    London,  1861,  8vo. 
Ibid.,  1864,  8vo.     Ibid.,  1867,  8vo. 

"  History  of  Civilization  in  France  and  England,  Spain  and  Scot- 
land."   London,  1866,  3  vols.,  post  8vo. 
Ibid.,  1868,  1869,  1871,  1872,  1873,  1878. 

"  History  of  Civilization  in  England."    From  the  second  London 
edition.    To  which  is  added  an  Alphabetical  Index.     New  York, 
1861.     2  vols.,  8vo. 
"  Geschichte  der  Civilization  in  England."     Deutsch  von  Arnold 

Ruge.     Leipsic  and  Heidelberg,  1860.     2  vols.,  8vo. 
Ibid.,  nebst    einer  kurzen    Lebensbeschreibung    des  Verfassers. 


SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  485 


[Translated  by  David  Asher,  from   "Eraser's  Magazine"  for 

September,  1862.]    Leipsic  and  Heidelberg,  1868,  2  vols.,  8vo. 
"  Histoire  de  la  Civilization  en  Angleterre."    Traduction  autorisee, 

par  A.  Baillot.    Paris  and  Brussels  [printed  at  Brussels].    5  vols. 

8vo,  1865. 

And  four  Russian  translations. 

"Essays,"  with  a  Biographical  Sketch.     Leipsic,  1867.     8vo. 
The  Sketch  is  from  "  Eraser's  Magazine  "  for  September,  1862. 
"Essays  von,  Verfasser  der  Geschichte  der  Civilization,"  nebst 

einer  kurzen    Lebensbeschreibung  des  Verfassers.      Aus  dem 

Englischen  tibersetzt  von  David  Asher.    Leipsic  and  Heidelberg. 

8vo. 

"  The  Influence  of  Women  on  the  Progress  of  Knowledge.     A  Dis- 
course delivered  at  the  Royal  Institution,  on  Friday,  the  19th 

March,  1858."     In  "Eraser's  Magazine,"  vol.  Ivii.,  pp.  395-407, 

No.  340,  for  April,  1858. 
Reprinted  in  Littell's  "  Living  Age."    Boston,  United  States.     3d 

series.     Vol.  i.,  pp.  883-893,  No.  734,  for  19th  June,  1858. 
Buckle,  Henry  Thomas : 

An  Abstract  of  the  above.    In  the  "  Reports  of  the  Proceedings  of 

the  Royal  Institution  of  Great  Britain."     Vol.  ii.,  part  viii.,  pp. 

504,  505.     London,  1858. 
"  De  Invloed  der  Vrouwen  op  de  Ontwikkeling  van  Kennis.    Eene 

Voolezing,  door  wijlen  H.  T.  Buckle  gehouden,  gevolgd  door  een 

Berigt  omtrent  het  Leven  van  dien  Schrijver.    Naar  het  Engelsch 

door."  .  .  .  H.  Pimentel  's  Gravenhage,  1872,  8vo. 
"  Mill  on  Liberty."     In  "  Eraser's  Magazine,"  vol.  lix.,  pp.  509-542, 

No.  353,  for  May,  1859. 
"A  Letter  to  a  Gentleman  respecting  Pooley's  Case."    London, 

1859,  8vo. 
"  Fragment  on  the  Reign  of  Elizabeth,  from  the  Posthumous  Papers 

of  Henry  Thomas  Buckle."     In  "  Fraser's  Magazine,"  vol.  Ixxv., 

pp.  163-186,  No.  446,  for  February,  1867;  and  vol.  Ixxvi.,  pp. 

135-150,  No.  452,  for  August,  1867. 
"The  Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  "Works  of  Henry  Thomas 

Buckle."    Edited,  with  a  Biographical  Notice,  by  Helen  Taylor. 

London,  1872.     3  vols.,  8vo. 
"  Ideen  aus  Buckle's  Geschichte  der  Civilization."    Leipsic  and 

Heidelberg,  1868,  small  8vo. 
"  Overzigt  van  Buckle's  Geschiedenes  der  Beschaving."     By  H. 

Pimentel.     's  Gravenhage.     8vo.    Deel  i.,  1869 ;  Deel  ii.,  1870. 

2d  edition,  1873.     2  vols.,  8vo. 


486  SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Burton,  Hill:  "Buckle's  History  of  Civilization."     In  the  "Scots- 
man" for  December  28,  1861,  and  January  1,  1862. 
Reprinted  as  a  pamphlet:  "Phylax  on  Buckle." 

Calcutta  Review :  "  The  History  of  Civilization  in  England."  Vol. 
xxxv.,  pp.  281-323,  No.  TO,  for  December,  1860.  8vo. 

"  Chess  Player's  Magazine,"  London,  8vo  :  "  Mr.  Henry  Thomas 
Buckle."  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  1-45,  No.  8,  for  February,  1864.  Portrait. 

"  Christian  Examiner,"  Boston :  "  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization." 
[By  Theodore  Parker.]  Vol.  Ixiv.  (5th  series,  vol.  ii.),  pp.  233- 
276,  No.  206,  for  March,  1858.  Art.  iv. 

"  Buckle's  Treatment  of  History."    Art.  iii.,  vol.  Ixxiv.  (5th  se- 
ries, vol.  xii.),  No,  235,  for  January,  1863. 

"  Christian  Observer,"  London,  8vo :  "  Buckle's  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion in  England."  Vol.  Iviii.,  pp.  685-707,  new  series,  No.  249, 
for  September,  1858. 

Reprinted,  entitled,  "  Examination  of  Buckle's  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion in  England,  by  a  Country  Clergyman."    London,  1858,  8vo. 
"  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  England."    Vol.  Ixi.,  pp.  476, 
477,  new  series,  No.  282,  for  June,  1861. 

Colburn's  "New  Monthly  Magazine,"  London,  8vo:  "Buckle's  His- 
tory of  Civilization  in  England."  Vol.  cxiii.,  pp.  162-184.  No. 
450,  for  June,  1858. 

Reprinted  in  "  Littell's  Living  Age,"  Boston,  U.  S.    8vo,  3d  series. 
Vol.  ii.,  pp.  464-480.    No.  741,  for  August,  1858. 

Coleridge,  John  Duke:  "Mr.  Buckle  and  Sir 'John  Coleridge."    In 
"  Eraser's  Magazine,"  vol.  lix.,  pp.  635-645,  No.  354,  for  June,  1859. 
London,  8vo. 

"  Cornhill  Magazine,"  London,  8vo :  "  The  Study  of  History."  Vol. 
iii.,  pp.  666-680,  No.  18,  for  June,  1861 ;  and  vol.  iv.,  pp.  25-41, 
No.  19,  for  July,  1861. 

"Daily  News":  "The  History  of  Civilization."  P.  2,  July  22, 
1861.  [By  Miss  Martineau.] 

"Daily  Scotsman":  "The  Influence  of  Women  on  the  Progress  of 
Knowledge."  April  12,  1858. 

Droysen,  J.  G. :  "  Erhebung  der  G-eschichte  zum  Rang  einer  Wissen- 

schaft."    In  Von  Sybel's  "  Zeitschrift."     1862. 
Reprinted  in  Droysen's  "  Grundriss  der  Historik,"  1867.    2d  edi- 
tion, Leipzig,  1875,  8vo. 

Drummond,  R.  B. :  "Free  Will  in  Relation  to  Statistics."  A  lecture 
containing  some  suggestions  in  way  of  reply  to  certain  objec- 
tions advanced  to  the  Doctrine  of  Free  Will  by  Mr.  Buckle,  etc. 
London,  8vo,  1860. 


SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  487 

"Dublin  University  Magazine,"  8vo:  "Buckle's  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion." Vol.  li.,  pp.  12-28,  No.  301,  for  January,  1858. 

"Edinburgh  Evening  Courant":  "Mr.  Buckle  on  Civilization  in 
Scotland."  1st  notice,  July  2,  1861 ;  2d  notice,,  July  9,  1861 ; 
3d  notice,  July  19,  1861. 

"Edinburgh  Review,"  8vo:   "Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in 
England."  Art.  vil,  vol.  cvii.,  pp.  465-512,  No.  218,  for  April,  1858. 
"Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  England."    Art.  vii.,  vol. 
cxiv.,  pp.  183-211,  No.  231,  for  July,  1861. 

Etienne,  Lois :  "  Le  Postivisme  dans  1'Histoire."  In  the  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes,  38th  year,  2d  series,  vol.  Ixxiv.,  pp.  375-408,  No. 
2,  for  March  15,  1868.  Paris,  8vo. 

"  Examiner,  The,"  London,  fol. :  "  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization." 

P.  615,  September  28,  1861.     No.  2800. 
"  Scottish  Character,"  by  "  G."    Pp.  36,  37,  January  18,  1862. 

" Falkirk  Herald ":  "Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  England." 
January  9,  1862. 

Fischer,  E.  L. :  "  Ueber  das  Gesetz  der  Entwickelung  auf  psychisch- 
ethischem  Gebiete — auf  naturwissenschaftlicher  Grundlager  mit 
Rucksicht  auf  Ch.  Darwin,  Herbert  Spencer,  und  Th.  Buckle  " 
(sic).  Wurzburg,  1875,  8vo. 

Fiske,  John :  "  Mr.  Buckle's  Fallacies."  Originally  written,  Septem- 
ber, 1861,  and  reprinted  in  "  Darwinism  and  other  Essays." 
London,  8vo,  1879.  Art.  ix.,  pp.  130-191.  Together  with  a  re- 
print of  a  critique  written  March,  1876,  entitled,  "  Postscript  on 
Mr.  Buckle."  Art.  x.,  pp.  192-203. 

Flint,  R. :  "  The  Philosophy  of  History."    Vol.  i.     1874.    London 

and  Edinburgh,  8vo. 

"Henry  Thomas  Buckle."    In  the   "Encyclopaedia  Britannica," 
9th  edition,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  421-423.    Edinburgh,  1876,  4to. 

"  Eraser's  Magazine  for  Town  and  Country."    London,  8vo :  "  Buckle's 
History  of  Civilization  in  England  "  [by  T.  C  Sanders].    Vol. 
Ivi.,  pp.  409-424,  No.  334,  for  October,  1857. 
"The  Influence  of  Women  on  the  Progress  of  Knowledge,"  by 
Henry  Thomas  Buckle.     Vol.  Ivii.,  pp.  395-407,  No.  340,  for 
April,  1858. 
"Mill  on  Liberty,"  by  Henry  Thomas  Buckle.     Vol.  lix.,  pp.  509- 

542,  No.  353,  for  May,  1859. 
"Mr.  Buckle  and  Sir  John  Coleridge,"  by  John  Duke  Coleridge. 

Vol.  lix.,  pp.  635-645,  No.  354,  for  June,  1859. 
"  Concerning  Man  and  his  Dwelling  Place,"  by  A.  K.  H.  B[oyd]. 
Ibid.,  pp.  645-661. 


488  SPECIAL  BIBLIOGEAPHY. 

"Some  Remarks  on  Mr.  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization,"  by  Th. 

Mayo.     Vol.  lx.,  pp.  293-300,  No.  357,  for  September,  1859. 
"  Henry  Thomas  Buckle."     Vol.  Ixvi.,  pp.  337-345,  No.  393,  for 

September,  1862. 
"Mr.  Buckle  in  the  East,"  by  J.  S.  S.  Glennie.    Vol.  Ixviii.,  pp. 

171-189,  No.  404,  for  August,  1863. 

"Fragment  on  the  Reign  of  Elizabeth,  from  the  Posthumous  Papers 
of  Henry  Thomas  Buckle."  Vol.  Ixxv.,  pp.  163-186,  No.  446,  for 
February,  1867. 

Ibid.    Vol.  Ixxvi.,  pp.  135-150,  No.  452,  for  August,  1867. 
Froude,  J.  A. :  "  On  the  Science  of  History."    In  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Royal  Institution  of  Great  Britain.     Vol.  iv.,  pp.  180-199, 
part  iii.,  No.  39.    London,  8vo,  1864. 
Reprinted  in  "  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects." 
"Gentleman's  Magazine  and    Historical    Review,"    London,   8vo: 
"Buckle's  History  of  Civilization."    3d  series,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  246- 
261,  for  September,  1857. 

Glennie,  J.  S.  S.:  "Mr.  Buckle  in  the  East."    In  "Eraser's  Maga- 
zine," vol.  Ixviii.,  pp.  171-189,  No.  404,  for  August,  1863. 
"Pilgrim  Memories,  or  Travel  and  Discussion  in  the  Birth-Coun- 
tries of  Christianity  with  the  late  Henry  Thomas  Buckle."    Lon- 
don, 1875,  8vo. 
Another  edition.     1876,  8vo. 

"The  New  Theory  of  History  and  the  Critics  of  Pilgrim  Memo- 
ries." London,  1876,  8vo. 

[Hale,  Charles] :  "  Personal  Reminiscences  of  the  late  Henry  Thomas 
Buckle."    In  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly,"  vol.  xi.,  pp.  488-499,  No. 
66,  for  April,  1863.    Boston  and  London.     8vo. 
Holyoake,  G.  J. :  "  The  Case  of  Thomas  Pooley,  the  Cornish  Well- 
sinker."    London,  8vo  [1857]. 
"Illustrated  Times":  "History  of  Civilization   in  England."     7th 

September,  1861. 

"Journal  of  Speculative  Philosophy,"  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  U.  S.,  8vo: 
"Mr.  Buckle  and  the  Aufklarung,"  by  J.  H.  Stirling.  Vol.  ix., 
pp.  337-400,  No.  4,  for  October,  1875. 

Lange,  F.  A. :  "  Geschichte  des  Materialismus  nnd  Kritik  seiner  Be- 
deutung  in  der  Gegenwart."  2  vols.,  8vo.  Iserlohn,  1873  and 
1875. 

Laurent,  F. :  "La  Philosophic  de  J'Histoire."    Paris,  8vo,  1870. 
"  Law  Magazine  and  Law  Review,  or  Quarterly  Journal  of  Jurispru- 
dence."   London,  8vo:  Art.  i.,  "  Sir  John  Taylor  Coleridge  and 
Mr.  Buckle."  New  series,  pp.  263-284,  No.  14,  for  August,  1859. 


SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  489 

"Literary  Gazette,  The,  and  Journal  of  Archaeology,  Science,  and 

Art."    4to.    London : 

"History  of  Civilization  in  England."    First  notice:  Part  vi.,  pp. 
581,  582,  No.  2109,  for  20th  June,  185T.     Second  notice :  Ibid., 
pp.  GOT,  608,  No.  2110,  for  27th  June,  1857. 
Ibid.,  new  series :  "  Buckle's  Civilization  in  England."    Vol.  vi., 

pp.  507-509,  No.  153  (2313),  for  1st  June,  1857. 
Ibid.,  "  Mr.  Buckle  on  the  History  of  Civilization."    A  series  of 
five  letters,  signed  "  T." : 

Vol.  vi.,  pp.  594,  595,  No.  156  (2316),  for  22d  June,  1861. 
"    vii.,  p.     19,  "     158  (2318),  for  6th  July       " 

"  "  pp.  40,  41,  "  159  (2319),  "  13th  "  " 
"  "  pp.  65,  66,  "  160  (2320),  "  20th  "  " 
"  »  p.  80,  "  161  (2321),  "  27th  "  " 

Reprinted  in  the  Scottish  Press,  q.  v. 

Littre*,  £. :  "De  1'Histoire  de  la  Civilisation  en  Angleterre,  par 
Buckle."  In  "La  Philosophie  Positive,"  Revue  dirig6e  par  £. 
Littre  et  G.  Wyrouboff,  pp.  54-84,  No.  4,  for  January,  1868. 
Paris,  8vo. 

Longrnore,  J.  A. :  "  Reminiscences  of  Mr.  Buckle."  In  the  "  Athense- 
um,"  pp.  114-116,  No.  2361,  for  25th  January,  1873. 

" London  Review ":  "Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  England," 
pp.  716,  717,  June  15,  1861,  fol. 
This  is  a  distinct  publication  from  the  following : 

"  London  Review  "  :  "  History  of  Civilization."  Art.  i.,  pp.  301-325, 
January,  1862.  8vo. 

"Macmillan's  Magazine,"  Cambridge  and  London,  8vo  :  Part  i.,  "Mr. 
Buckle's  Doctrine  as  to  the  Scotch  and  their  History,"  by  D. 
Masson.     Vol.  iv.,  art.  i.,  pp.  177-189,  No.  21,  for  July,  1861. 
Part  ii.,  "  The  Weasel  Wars  of  Scotland  and  the  Scottish  Reforma- 
tion."   Ibid.,  art.  vii.,  pp.  309-322,  No.  22,  for  August,  1861. 
Partiii.,  "Scotland  in  the  Seventeenth  Century."     Ibid.,  art.  vii., 
pp.  370-383.    No.  23,  for  September,  1861. 

"Magasin  fur  die  Literatur  des  Auslandes " :  "Buckle's  Geschichte 
der  Civilisation."  29th  year,  vol.  Iviii.,  pp.  338-340,  No.  29,  for 
July  18,  1860. 

Ibid.,  30th  year,  vol.  lx.,  pp.  404-406,  No.  34,  for  August  21,  1861. 

"  Manchester  Weekly  Express  and  Guardian  "  :  "  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion in  England."  Supplement,  p.  1,  August  17,  1861. 

Marselli,  N. :  "  Scienza  della  Storia."    Turin,  8vo,  1873. 

Masson,  David :  "  Mr.  Buckle's  Doctrine  as  to  the  Scotch  and  their 


490  SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

History."    Part  L    In  "  Macmillan's  Magazine,"  vol.  iv.,  art.  i., 
pp.  177-189,  No.  21,  for  July,  1861. 
Part  ii.,  "  The  Weasel  Wars  of  Scotland  and  the  Scottish  Ref  orma- 

tion."    Ibid.,  art.  vii.,  pp.  309-322,  No.  22,  for  August,  1861. 
Part  iii.,  "Scotland  in  the  Seventeenth  Century."    Ibid.,  art.  vii., 

pp.  370-383,  No.  23,  for  September,  1861. 

"Recent  British  Philosophy;  a  Review,  with  Criticisms."    Lon- 
don, 8vo.    3d  edition,  1877. 

Mayo,  Thomas:  "Some  Remarks  on  Buckle's  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion."   In  "Eraser's  Magazine,"  vol.  lx.,  pp.  293-300,  No.  357, 
for  September,  1859. 
Mayr,  Richard :  "  Die  Philosophische  Geschichtsauffassung  der  Neu- 

zeit."    Vienna,  8vo,  1877. 
Mill,  J.  S. :  "A  System  of  Logic."    London,  8vo,  2  vols.,  5th  edition, 

1862. 

"  Morning  Post "  :  "  The  History  of  Civilization."   P.  3,  July  31, 1861. 
"National  Review  "  :  "On  Civilization  and  Faith."  Yol.  vi.,  pp.  198- 

228,  No.  11,  for  January  1,  1858.    London,  8vo. 
Ibid.,  vol.  xiii.,  p.  237,  No.  25,  for  July,  1861. 

"North  American  Review,"  Boston,  U.  S.,  8vo:  "History  of  Civili- 
zation in  England."    Yol.  Ixxxvii.,  pp.  388-423,  No.  181,  for 
October,  1858,  art.  v. 
Ibid.:  "Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  England."    Yol.  xcii., 

pp.  519-559,  No.  193,  for  October,  1861,  art.  ix. 
Ibid. :  "  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  his  Problem  and  his  Metaphysics," 
by  J.  H.  Stirling.    Yol.  cxv.,  pp.  65-103,  No.  236,  for  July,  1872, 
art.  iv. 
"North  British  Review,"  Edinburgh,  8vo:  "Recent  Publications." 

Yol.  xxix.,  pp.  556-558,  No.  58,  for  November,  1858,  art.  xi. 
Ibid. :  "  History  of  Civilization  in  England."    Yol.  xxxv.,  pp.  253- 

288,  No.  69,  for  August,  1861,  art.  x. 
Oettingen,  A.  von :  "  Die  Moralstatistik,  und  die  Christliche  Sitten- 

lehre."    Erlangen,  1870,  8vo. 

The  second  edition,  1874,  does  not  give  so  much  space  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  Buckle. 

Parker,  Theodore :  "  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization."  In  the  "  Chris- 
tian Examiner,"  vol.  Ixiv.,  pp.  233-276,  No.  206,  for  March,  1858, 
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Reprinted  in  Ms  "Works."    London,   1865,    8vo,  vol.   xii.,  pp. 

107-149. 

Pimentel,  H. :  "  Overzigt  van  Buckle's  Geschiedenes  der  Beschaving." 
Deel  i.,  1869.    Deel  ii.,  1870.    's  Gravenhage,  8vo. 


SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  401 

Second  edition,  1873,  2  vols. 

"De  Invloed  der  Yrouwen  op  de  Ontwikkeling  van  Kennis.  Eene 
Yoolezing,  door  wijlen  H.  T.  Buckle  gehouden,  geyolgd  door  een 
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elsch.  's  Gravenhage,  1872,  8vo. 

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pp.  668-688.    No.  744,  for  28th  August,  1858. 
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July,  1861. 

Re*musat,  Ch.  de:  "  De  la  Civilisation  Moderne."  In  the  "Revue  des 
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livraison,  for  1st  November,  1858. 

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1868. 

Rougement,  F.  de :  "  Les  Deux  Cite"s  "— "  La  Philosophic  de  1'Histoire 
aux  Diff e" rents  Ages  de  l'Humanit6."  2  vols.,  Paris,  8vo,  1874. 

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the  "  Saturday  Review,"  vol.  iv.,  pp.  38,  39,  No.  89,  for  llth 
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"  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  England."  In  "Eraser's  Maga- 
zine," vol.  Ivi.,  pp.  409-424,  No.  334,  for  October,  1857. 

"  Saturday  Review,"  London,  fol. :  "  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization 
in  England  "  [by  T.  C.  Sanders].     Vol.  iv.,  pp.  38,  39,  No.  89, 
for  llth  July,  1857. 
Ibid. :  "Mr.  Buckle  and  Sir  John  Coleridge."    Vol.  vii.,  pp.  585- 

587,  No.  185,  for  14th  May,  1859. 

Ibid. :  "  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization."  Vol.  xi.,  pp.  561,  562, 
No.  292,  for  1st  June,  1861. 

"  Scotsman,  The  " :  "  History  of  Civilization  in  England."    1st  art., 
December  28,  1861 ;  2d  art.,  January  1,  1862.     [By  J.  Hill  Bur- 
ton.] 
Reprinted  as  a  pamphlet :  "  Phylax  on  Buckle." 

"  Scottish  Press  " :  "  Mr.  Buckle  on  the  History  of  Civilization  in 


SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

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Smith,  Goldwin :  "  Lectures  on  the  Study  of  History,"  delivered  in 

Oxford,  1859-'61. 
Second  edit.,  12mo.     Oxford  and  London,  1865. 

Solovfiv,  N. :  "  Mill,  Comte,  and  Buckle,  and  the  Enfranchisement  of 
Women."  Moscow,  8vo,  1870. 

"  Spectator,  The,"  London,  f ol. :  "  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in 

England."    Pp.  651,  652,  No.  1512,  for  20th  June,  1857. 
Ibid. :  "  Mr.  Buckle's  Second  Volume  on  Civilization."    1st  art., 
pp.  616,  617,  No.  1719,  for  June  8,  1861;  2d  art.,  pp.  642,  643, 
No.  1720,  for  June  15,  1861. 

Stirling,  J.  Hutchinson  :  "  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  his  Problem,  and 
his  Metaphysics."  In  the  "North  American  Review,"  Boston, 
U.  S.,  8vo,  vol.  cxv.,  pp.  65-103,  No.  236,  for  July,  1872, 
art.  iv. 

"Mr.  Buckle  and  the  Aufklarung."  In  the  "Journal  of  Specula- 
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400,  No.  4,  for  October,  1875. 

"  Times,  The,"  London :  "  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization  in  Eng- 
land."   P.  5,  No.  22,810,  for  13th  October,  1857. 
Ibid.:  "  Mr.  Buckle's  New  Volume."    1st  art.,  pp.  8,  9,  No.  24,016, 
for  20th  August,  1861 ;  2d  art.,  p.  8,  No.  24,018,  for  22d  August, 
1861 ;  3d  art.,  p.  10,  No.  24,019,  for  23d  August,  1861. 

"  Tablet,  The  "  :  "  Buckle's  History  of  Civilization."  P.  570,  Septem- 
ber 7,  1861. 

Taylor,  Helen:  "Miscellaneous  and  Posthumous  Works  of  Henry 
Thomas  Buckle,  with  a  Biographical  Notice."  3  vols.,  8vo. 
London,  1872. 

Tyrwhitt,  Rev.  R.  St.  John :  "  Sinai."  Pp.  325-356,  of  Vacation 
Tourists  and  Notes  of  Travel  in  1862-'63.  Edit,  by  Fr.  Galton. 
London  and  Cambridge,  1864,  8vo. 

"  Universe,  The,"  London :  "  A  History  of  Civilization  in  England." 
1st  art.,  p.  6,  No.  38,  for  24th  August,  1861 ;  2d  art.,  p.  3,  No. 
39,  for  31st  August,  1861. 

Vorlander,  F. :  "  Englische  Geschichtsphilosophie."  In  the  Preussi- 
sche  Jahrbucher.  Vol.  ix.,  pp.  501-527,  5te  Heft  for  May,  1862. 
Berlin,  8vo. 

Wallace,  Mackenzie :  "  Russia."    2  vols.,  8vo.    London,  1877. 

Weiss,  John:  "Life  and  Correspondence  of  Theodore  Parker."  2 
vols.,  8vo.  London,  1873. 

"  Westminster  Review,"  New  Series.    London,  8vo :  "  History  of 


SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  493 


Civilization  in  England."    Art.  iv.,  vol.  xii.,  pp.  375-399,  No. 
24,  for  October,  1857. 

Ibid. :  "  History  of  Civilization  in  England."     Art.  vii.,  vol.  xx., 
pp.  187-207,  No.  39,  for  July,  1861. 


SPECIAL  CHESS  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

"  Athenaeum,"  London,  4to  :  "  Copy  of  a  Letter  written  to  the  "  City 
of  London  Chess  Magazine,"  by  M.  v.  der  Lasa.  P.  262,  No. 
2469,  for  20th  February,  1875. 

Bird,  H.  E. :  Chess  Masterpieces,  etc.,  etc.    London,  8vo,  1875. 
Game  No.          Pages      Played  in  Between 

62  59,  60        1857  Buckle  and  Boden. 

67  63,  64        1851  "     Loewenthal. 

68  64,  65        1851  "     Loewenthal. 

69  65,  66        1851  "     Schulder. 

70  66,  67        1849  "     Williams. 

"  Chess  Player,  The,"  edited  by  Kling  and  Horwitz,  London,  1851  -'53, 
12mo. 

Vol.  i.,  p.  112,  No.  xiv.,  for  October  18,  1851. 
Vol.  in.,  pp.  2,  3,  No.  lii.,  for  July  10,  1852. 

"  i.  (sic)  p.  34,  No.  iii.,  for  August  28,  1852. 

"  Chess  Player's  Chronicle,"  edited  by  Howard  Staunton,  etc.    Lon- 
don, 8vo,  1841-'61. 
First  Series  : 

Vol.  iv.,    1843,  pp.  195,  196,  198,  201,  266. 
"    vi.,    1846,    "    130,  198,  235,  236,  331-335,  360,  362. 
"    vii.,  1846,    "    46,  53,  54,  55,  213,  214,  349,  407,  408,  410. 
"    viii.,  1847,   "    50,  97,  257,  353,  368. 
"    ix.,    1849,    "    46,  260,  303,  327. 
"    x.,     1849,    "     65,  67,  68,  113,  115,  143,  145,  184,  186,  228, 

230. 

"    xi.,    1850,    "    76,  112,  174,  347. 
"    xii.,  1851,    "     6,  266,  and  30,  62,  81,  86,  88,  89,  91,  94,  247, 

248,  281,  373. 
"    xiii.,  1852,    "    278. 
New  Series : 

Vol.  ii.,  1854,  pp.  212,  240,  and  155,  180. 
"  iii.,  1855,  "  353,  and  102,  204,  236. 
"  iv.,  1856,  "  20,  and  93,  94,  125. 


494  SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Third  Series : 

Vol.  i.,      1859,  p.  180. 
"Chess  Player's  Magazine,  The,"  London,  8vo:  "Mr.  Henry  Thomas 

Buckle."    Vol.  ii.,  pp.  1-45,  No.  8,  for  February,  1864. 
City  of  London  "Chess  Magazine,  The,"  London,  8vo;  edit,  by  W. 

N.  Potter.    Vol.  i.,  1875,  pp.  165-168,  288. 
"Field,  The,"  London,  fol.  : 

No.  4,  for  Jan.    22,  1853,  vol.  i.,     p.     61,  between  Buckle  and  Bird. 
"    5,   "  Jan.    29,  1853,    "    i.,     p.     77,  "  " 

"  30,   "  July    23,  1853,    "    ii.,    p.     82,  "       Barnes  (2). 

"  32,    "  Aug.     6,  1853,    "     ii.,    p.  140,  "  «      (2). 

"  37,   "  Sept.  10,  1853,    "    ii.,    p.  261,  "  " 

"  48,    "  Nov.  26,  1853,    "     ii.,    p.  524,  "  " 

"  65,   "  Mar.  25,  1854,    "     iii.,  p.  275,  "  " 

"Illustrated  London  News,  The,"  London,  fol. : 
No.  148,  for  Mar.      1,  1845,  vol.  vi.,      p.  144,  between  Buckle  and 

Kennedy. 

"    182,   "  Oct.    25,  1845,    "    vii.,     p.  267,         "  " 

"    220,   "  July    18,  1846,   "    ix.,      p.    42,         "      Anon. 
"    287,   "  Oct.    30,  1847,   "    xi.,      p.  283,         "      Medley. 
"    368,    "  Apr.   28,  1849,    "    xiv.,     p.  274,         "      0.  F.  Smith. 
"    371,   "  May    19,  1849,    "    xiv.,     p.  323,        "      Kieseritzky. 
"    436,   "  July    13,  1850,   "    xvii.,    p.     52,         "      C.  F.  Smith. 
"    464,   "  Jan.    11,  1851,    "    xviii.,  p.     32,  Committee  of  Chess 

Tournament. 

"    471,    "  Feb.    22,  1851,    "     xviii.,  p.  163,  " 

"    488,    "  May    31,  1851,    "    xviii.,  p.  481,  " 

"    510,    "  Aug.  16,  1851,    "    xix.,    p.  219,  between  Buckle  and 

Loewental. 

"    513,   "  Aug.   30,  1851,    "    xix.,    p.  267,         "  " 

"    531,   "  Nov.   29,1851,    "    xix.,    p.  643,  Anglo-French  Match. 
"    535,    "  Dec.    13,  1851,    "    xix.,    p.  707,  Games  with 

Loewental. 
"    538,   "  Dec.    27,  1851,   ".    xix.,  p.  771,  between  Buckle  and 

Loewental. 

"    558,   "  May     8,  1852,   "    xx.,     p.  383,  Eeview  on  Staunton's 

Tournament. 
"    579,   "  Sept.  28,  1852,    "    xxi.,  p.  210,  between  Buckle  and 

Schulder. 

Kennedy,  Captain  H.  A. :  "  Mr.  Buckle  as  a  Chess  Player."  In  the 
"Westminster  Chess  Club  Papers,"  vol.  vi.,  pp.  23-25,  No.  62, 
for  June,  1873,  London,  4to. 


SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY.  495 

Lasa  v.  Heydebrandt  u.  d. :  "  Henry  Thomas  Buckle."  In  the 
"  Schachzeitung."  Leipzig,  8vo.  Pp.  194,  195,  Nos.  7  and  8, 
for  July  and  August,  1862. 

"  A  Letter  on  the  Chess  Play  of  Henry  Thomas  Buckle."    In  the 
"  City  of  London  Chess  Magazine."    London,  8vo.     Vol.  i.,  p. 
288.     1875. 
Ibid. :  In  the  "  Athena3um."    London,  4to.    P.  262,  No.  2469,  for 

20th  February,  1875. 
La  Re"gence,  "Journal  des  Echecs."    Paris,  8vo.     (Successor  to  La 

Palamede). 
First  Series : 
No.  1,  for  Jan.,  1849,  pp.    28-  30,  Game  between  Buckle  and 

Kieseritzky. 

"    2,    "  Feb.,  1849,  pp.    50-  53,  "  (2). 

"    3,    "  Mar.,  1849,  pp.    80-  84,  "  (2). 

"    4,    "  April,1849,  pp.  109-111,  " 

11    5,    "  Aug.,  1851,  pp.  241-246,  "  (2). 

Second  Series  : 

No.  2,  for  February,  1856,  pp.  53,  54,  328,  between  Buckle  and 

Tassinari. 
"  Schachalmanach,"  Erste  (and  only)  Jahrgang.     Leipzig,  12mo,  1846. 

Pp.  172,  173,  Game  between  Buckle  and  Captain  Kennedy. 
"Schachzeitung,"  in   Monatlichen  Heften   herausgegeben  von  der 

Berliner  Schachgesellsch aft.    Berlin,  8vo: 

No.  3,  for  Sept.,  1846,  pp.  87-89,  Game  bet.  Buckle  and  v.  d.  Lasa. 
"     6,    "  Dec.,   1846,   p.  183,  Letter  from  Kieseritzky. 
"    8,    "  Aug.,  1848,   p.  305,  Bledow  on  Buckle  in  Berlin,  and 

game  with  Carisien. 
"  11,   "  Nov.,  1855,  pp.  348,  349,  game  between  Buckle  and 

Tassinari. 
"  Schachzeitung,"  Geriindet   von  der  Berliner  Schachgesellschaft, 

Organ  fur  das  gesammte  Schachleben.    Leipzig,  8vo : 
Nos.  7  and  8,  July  and  August,  1862,  pp.  194,  195,  Notice  of 

Buckle's  death,  by  v.  d.  Lasa. 
Ditto,  pp.  237,  238,  Games  with  Kieseritzky,  Smith,  and  Loew- 

enthal. 
Staunton,   Howard :    "  The  Chess   Player's    Handbook."    London, 

12mo,  1875 : 
Game  between  Buckle  and  Captain  Kennedy,  pp.  74,  75. 

"  Harrwitz,  pp.  125,  126. 

"  The  Chess  Player's  Companion."    London,  12mo,  1875 : 
Two  games  between  Buckle  and  Staunton,  pp.  167-169. 


496  SPECIAL  BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

"  The  Chess  Tournament,"  a  Collection  of  Games  played  at  this 

celebrated  assemblage,  etc.    London,  12mo,  1873 : 
Match  between  Buckle  and  Loewenthal,  pp.  225-242. 
Williams,  Elijah  :  "  Horss  Divamanse,"  a  selection  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  Original  Games  at  Chess,  by  leading  Masters,  princi- 
pally played  at  the  Grand  Divan,  etc.,  etc.   London,  12mo,  1852 : 
Between  Buckle  and  Brown,      Games  No.  2,  7,  10-13,  24. 
"  Simons,  "      32-54,  64,  68. 

Smith,  «      69,  77,  78. 

"  Maude,  "      75. 

"  Williams,  "      99-102. 

"  Kepping,  «      116. 


INDEX 


AARON'S  tomb,  424. 
Abydos,  885. 

Achmet's  divorce,  423. 

Adoption,  328. 

'Ain  el  Haramiyeh,  439. 

'Am  Musa,  409. 

Akaba,  418. 

Akka,  444. 

Alexandria,  358. 

Alexandroschene,  444. 

Alison's  "History,"  398,  399. 

Allatt,  death  of  Robert,  291. 

Ambition,  10,  25,  41,  290. 

America,  proposed  visit  to,  135,  401 ; 
the  state  of,  174,  175,  281,  394, 
400 ;  copyright  law  of,  403  ;  the 
"History  of  Civilization"  in,  124, 
134,  337,  338. 

Ancestry  of  Buckle,  10,  11. 

Animals,  kindness  to,  326,  417,  418. 

Antiquities,  collection  of,  366,  381, 
ct  seq.,  391. 

Arab  vengeance,  414. 

Arts,  relative  idealization  of  the,  21, 
22 ;  advance  of  the,  303. 

Assouan,  378-381. 

Athengeura,  election  to  the,  214,  215. 

Austrian  customs,  35. 

Avarice,  charge  of,  46 ;  difference  be- 
tween, and  parsimony,  46,  47,  364. 


BETHEL,  439. 
Bethlehem,  426,  437. 
32 


Beyrout,  446  ;  prosecution  of  Hassan 
at,  448,  449. 

Biography  is  not  history,  206. 

Birmingham,  manners  in,  347. 

Birth  of  Buckle,  11. 

Blackheath,  stay  at,  280,  et  seq. 

Blasphemy,  punishment  for,  252,  253, 
263. 

Blind,  happiness  of  the,  81. 

Bodin  and  the  "  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion," 202,  204,  205. 

Books,  purchases  of,  31,  45  ;  Buckle's 
rate  of  reading,  24,  39  ;  the  method 
of  reading,  39,  40  ;  the  love  of,  110. 

Bossuet  and  the  "  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion," 203. 

Boulogne,  illness  at,  33;  stays  at, 
111,  290. 

Bowyear,  correspondence  with  Mrs., 
121,  234,  239,  249,  287,  288,  290, 
297,  334,  351,  373. 

Brighton,  stays  at,  17,  259,  et  seq. ; 
278,  279,  294,  et  seq. ;  322. 

Buckle,  Sir  Cuthbert,  10. 

Buckle,  Mrs.,  her  Calvinistic  views, 
16  ;  character  of,  74  ;  eagerness  to 
see  her  son's  book,  113,  114;  the 
dedication  to,  ibid. ;  ill  health  of, 
38,  53,  63,  86-88,  90,  91,  94,  108, 
110,  113,  118,  121,  123,  223,225, 
229,  233,  234 ;  approaching  death 
of,  239,  245;  death  of,  245;  her 
son's  grief,  246,  et  scq.,  290,  291, 
330,  342-344,  350. 


498 


INDEX. 


Buclde,  Thomas  H.,  10,  14,  16. 
Buddhism  a  necessary  study  for  theo- 
logians, 346. 

CAIRO,  stay  at,  363,  386,  et  seq. 
Camel-riding,  412. 

Capel,  correspondence  with  Mr.,  124, 
132,  134,  268,  277,  286,  297,  323, 
330,  331. 

Carolside,  stay  at,  333,  336,  353. 
Carshalton,  stay  at,  294,  et  seq.,  323, 

et  seq. 

Catholic,  Roman,  Church,  Comte's  es- 
timate of  the,  192,  194;  compared 
with  the  Protestant,  420,  421. 
Charity  of  Buckle,  46,  47,  212,  288, 

322. 
Charles  I.,  fragment  on,  not  extant, 

3],  32. 

Chess,  Buckle's  skill  in,  20,  28-30, 

34,  35,  95  ;  great  tournament  of 

1851,  55,  et  seq.',    championship, 

59 ;  at  Dublin,  65. 

Children,  love  of,  283-285,  309,  324, 

327,  348  ;  adoption  of,  328. 
Clairvoyance,  347. 
Cobras  in  the  desert,  418,  425. 
Coleridge,  Judge,  and  Pooley's  case, 

254-278,  285. 

Coleridge,  the  answer  of  Mr.  J.  D., 
260,  268,  269,  271,  276;  publica- 
tion of  Buckle's  reply  to,  277. 
Color  and  form,  36. 
Comte,  Augt.,  how  to  read,  76 ;  his 
want  of  practical  knowledge,  49 ; 
his  belief  in  phrenology,  63  ;  igno- 
rance of  political   economy,    151, 
197;  compared  with  Buckle,  191- 
199,  209,  211,  note. 
Condorcct  on  morals  and  civilization, 

211,  note. 

Conversational  powers  of  Buckle,  66, 
67,  302,  309,  et  seq.,  322,  349,  et 
seq.,  409,  419. 
Copyright  in  America,  403. 


Cornwall,  tour  in,  131. 
Corporal  punishment,  326,  348. 
Correspondence  of  Buckle  with  Mrs. 
Bowyear,  121,  234,  239,  249,  287, 
288,290,297,334,351,373;  with  Mr. 
Capel,  124,  132,  134,  268,  277,  286, 
297,  323,  330,  331 ;  with  Mr.  Grey, 
222 ;  with  Mrs.  Grey,  75,  77,  90,  94, 
95,  98,  99, 106,  111,  119,  122,  222, 
237,  242,  249,  272,  278,  284,  295, 
333;  with  Mrs.  Grote,  320,  322, 
352;  with  Lord  Hatherley,  125, 
127;  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  292; 
with  Mr.  Huth,  293,  294,  387,  392, 
416;  with  Mrs.  Huth,  307,  315, 
336,  352,  354,  360,  363,  367,  379, 
386,  416,  427,  446 ;  with  the  sons 
of  Mr.  Huth,  294;  with  Mr.  Ch. 
Kingsley,  258 ;  with  Mrs.  Mitchell, 
292,  317-319,  322,  331 ;  with  Mr. 
Parker,  100,  102,  104,  106,  114, 
116,  117,  131,  216,  218,  230,  231, 
240,  241,  257,  259,  268,  271,  272, 
274-276,  285,  286  ;  with  Mr.  Theo- 
dore Parker,  135,  280;  with  Miss 
Shirreff,  76,  78,  80-83,  85-87,  91, 
93,  95-98,  107,  108,  110,  111,  117, 
118,  124,  219,  221,  223,  225-227, 
229,  232-236,  261,  264,  280,  296, 
317;  with  Mr.  Thackeray,  292; 
with  Sir  Ch.  Wheatstone,  130 ;  with 
Major  Woodhead,  63;  with  Mrs. 
Woodhead,  244,  291,  332. 

Country  and  town,  comparison  be- 
tween the,  53,  63,  64,  77,  90,  106, 
333. 

Cousins,  marriage  between,  52. 

Crime,  sameness  in,  145,  146,  347. 

Critics  and  criticism,  139,  etseq.,  183, 
184,  286. 

Crystal  Palace,  visit  to  the,  72,  73. 

DAMASCUS,  first  view  of,  451; 
death  of  Buckle  at,  456. 
Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species,"  292. 


INDEX. 


499 


Dead  Sea,  438. 

Death  of  Buckle,  456. 

Deduction  and  induction,  120,  133. 

Descartes  not  persecuted,  122,123. 

Diary,  the  first  entry  in  Buckle's,  24 ; 
a  part  lost,  52,  note. 

Draughts,  Buckle's  skill  in,  20,  358. 

Dress,  carelessness  as  to,  313,  357, 
411;  attention  should  be  paid  to, 
by  women,  313,  329,  357;  impor- 
tance of  warm,  in  the  desert,  410. 

Dublin,  chess  at,  65. 


),  381. 

Education,  Buckle's,  12,  et  seq., 
23,  24 ;  views  on,  51,  79,  80,  84, 
85,  91,  300,  301,  311,  312,  324-326, 
341,  357,  361,  366,  et  seq.,  388,  418, 
431. 

Egypt,  idea  of  visiting,  351,  et  seq. ; 
departure  for,  354,  landing  in,  358 ; 
the  ancient  civilization  of,  376,  396, 
398  ;  departure  from,  408. 

Emotions,  the  truth  of  the,  248. 

English  civilization,  why  placed  first, 
170 ;  richness  of  the,  language,  316. 

Epochs  in  literature,  318. 

Esdraelon,  the  plain  of,  440. 

Esneh,  375. 

Evolution,  93,  292. 

Extravagance,  charge  of,  363,  389, 
390,  393. 

FILEY,  stay  at,  331. 
Fire-arms,  little  skill  in  the  use 
of,  369. 

Food  and  civilization,  125,  141,  142, 
152,  206. 

Form  and  color,  36,  374. 

Free  trade,  15. 

Free  will,  143,  et  seq. 

French  history,  133,  173,  174;  pov- 
erty of  the,  language,  316 ;  under 
Napoleon  III.,  328;  taste,  329; 


translation    of    the    "  History    of 
Civilization,"  334. 
Fiileh,  el,  440. 


AMES,  Buckle's  skill  in,  20,  362, 


Gebel  Musa,  415,  416. 

Gerizim,  Mount,  440. 

Germany,  history  of,  174,  175,  329  ; 
the  "History  of  Civilization"  in, 
334. 

Gethsemane,  the  garden  of,  432. 

Ghost,  a,  at  Munich,  36,  37. 

Gibraltar,  358. 

Greek  fire,  miracle  of  the,  434,  435. 

Grey,  correspondence  with  Mr.,  222  ; 
with  Mrs.,  75,  77,  90,  94,  95,  98, 
99,  106,  111,  119,  122,  222,  237, 
242,  249,  272,  278,  284,  295,  333. 

Grotc,  correspondence  with  Mrs.,  320, 
322,  352. 


HALLAM,  acquaintance  with,  19, 
26. 

Hassan,  prosecution  of,  448,  449. 

Hatherley,  correspondence  with  Lord, 
125,  127. 

Health  of  Buckle,  as  a  boy,  11,  13- 
15,  17;  as  a  youth,  36,  37 ;  as  a 
man,  93,  94,  97,  99,  111-113,  118, 
220,  225,  234,  244,  261,  278,  279, 
280,  284,  287,  290,  294,  296,  297, 
308,  309,  320-322,  330,  332,  340, 
344,  353,  362,  364,  432;  the  last 
illness,  440,  441,  449,  et  seq. 

Health,  the  compatibility  of,  with 
delicacy  of  feeling,  90,  317. 

Hebrew  quotations,  399. 

Hebron,  426. 

Herne  Bay,  stay  at,  223. 

"  History  of  Civilization,"  the  early 
plans  concerning,  18,  24,  26,  61, 
62;  progress  of  vol.  one,  92,  94, 
100;  publication  of  vol.  one,  96, 


500 


INDEX. 


101,  102,  104-118,  123;  dedication 
of,  114  ;  reception  of  vol.  one,  124, 
135,  213,  ct  seq.,  224,  225,  240,  334, 
335;  criticism  on  vol.  one,  107, 
108,  122,  123,  et  seq.,  139,  et  seq., 
230,  231,  287  ;  progress  of  vol.  two, 
133,  135,  282,  285,  287,  292,  293, 
294,  296,  298 ;  publication  of  vol. 
two,  298,  317,  320;  reception  of 
vol.  two,  332,  334,  335,  et  seq. ; 
analysis  and  plan  of,  139-181; 
prospect  of  its  completion,  112, 
1S2;  curtailment  of,  184;  origi- 
nality of,  187-212 ;  the  place  of, 
in  history,  212,  213. 

Holyoake,  interview  with  Mr.,  297. 

Ilor,  ascent  of  Mount,  423,  424. 

Hull,  stay  at,  331. 

Hutchinson,  correspondence  with 
Mrs.,  292. 

Huth,  correspondence  with  Mr.,  293, 
294,  387,  392  ;  with  Mrs.,  307,  315, 
336,  352,  354,  360,  363,  367,  379, 
386,  416,  427,  446  ;  with  the  sons 
of  Mr.,  294. 

Huth,  correspondence  of  the  sons  of 
Mr.,  concerning  Buckle,  294,  370, 
371,  407,  408. 

IMAGINATION,  want  of,  in  crimi- 

-L  nals,  347. 

Immortality,  the  proof  of,  246-248, 

304,  305. 

Income  of  Buckle,  47. 
Individual  and  mass,   difference  of 

laws  for  the,  126,  127,  133,  207. 
Induction  and  deduction,  120,  133. 
Inheritance  of  genius,  156,  215,  216. 
Ireland,  tour  in,  64. 
Italy,  stay  in,  19,  35,  36. 

JENlN,  440. 
Jerusalem,  stay  at,  426,  et  seq. 
Jordan,  438. 


KANT,  and  the  "  History  of  Civ- 
ilization," 207-209. 
Kent,  anecdote  of  the   Duchess  of, 

311;  death,  ibid. 
Kingsley,   correspondence   with    Mr. 

Ch.,  258. 
Kintore,  plan  of  the  History  written 

for  Lord,  61,  62. 
Knowledge  immortal,  64. 

T  EGISLATORS     not     reformers, 

JLj  167,  168,  201. 

Leonard's,  stay  at  St.,  307-314. 

Leontes,  the  river,  445. 

Library,  description  of  Buckle's,  38, 

126. 
Linguistical  knowledge,   19,  36,  37, 

399. 
Literature,  and  progress,  166  ;  should 

punish  as  well  as  persuade,  257 ; 

epochs  in,  318. 

Literature,  Royal  Society  of,  66. 
Longmore,   Mr.,  conversations   with, 

375,  376,  378,  409. 
Love,  a  proof  of  immortality,  246- 

248. 

Loves,  early,  51,  52,  350. 
LyelPs  "  Geology,"  89,  93 

MACAULAY,  Lord,  death  of, 
292,  338 ;  memory  of,  407. 

Macdonald,  reception  by  Major,  413, 
414. 

Machiavelli  and  the  "  History  of  Civ- 
ilization," 202. 

Malta,  360. 

Man  not  the  center  of  the  universe, 
208. 

Margate,  stay  at,  284,  et  seq.,  320. 

Mar  Saba,  437. 

Mass  and  individual,  difference  of 
laws  for  the,  126,  133,  208. 

Mazetta,  trial  of  the,  405. 

Memory,  powerful,  of  Buckle,  67-71, 


INDEX. 


501 


212,  399,  436;  use  of,  in  teaching, 
92. 

Merj,  el,  449. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  "Logic,"  93,  318; 
"  Political  Economy,"  89,  93,  387, 
388 ;  "  Essays,"  290  ;  "  Utilitarian- 
ism," 345  ;  "  On  Liberty,"  240,  241, 
245 ;  compared  with  Buckle,  360 ; 
on  Buckle,  438. 

Miracles,  conversation  on,  436. 

Mitchell,  correspondence  with  Mrs., 
292,  317,  318,  319,  322,  331. 

Montesquieu  and  the  "  History  of  "Civ- 
ilization," 204-207. 

Moral  knowledge  not  a  factor  in  the 
progress  of  civilization,  126-129, 
156,  et  seq.,  211,  264,  287,  288,  289, 
341,  342,  439. 

Mourning,  refusal  to  go  into,  for  the 
Duchess  of  Kent,  311 ;  a  sham 
without  sorrow,  326. 

Munich,  stay  at,  36,  37. 

Music,  no  knowledge  of,  21,  22  ;  acute- 
ness  of  Buckle's  ear  to  tone,  309, 
324. 

•A-TABULUS,  440. 

J-N    Nahr  el  Kasimiyeh,  445. 

Natural  science,  study  of,  by  Buckle, 

53,  63. 

Nazareth,  441,  444. 
Normandy,  tour  in,  53,  54. 
Novels,  the  value  of,  96,  97. 
Nubia,  journey  in,  379,  380. 
Nukb  Badereh,  413. 

ORIGINALITY  defined,  187-191 ; 
want  of,   in  crime,   145,   146, 
347,  348 ;  in  social  life,  411. 

PAINTINGS,  views  on,  36. 
Parker,    correspondence    with 
Mr.,  100,  102,  104,  106,  114,  116, 
117,  131,  216,  218,  230,  231,  240, 


241,  257,  259,  268,  271,  272,  274, 

275,  276,  285,  286. 
Parker,  correspondence  with  Mr.  The- 
odore, 135,  280/281. 
Parsimony  and  avarice,  the  difference 

between,  46,  47,  364. 
Petra,  stay  at,  424,  et  seq.,  428,  429. 
Petrified  forest,  visit  to  the,  405,  et 

seq. 

Phrenology,  63. 

Pleasure,  the  importance  of,  306. 
Political  economy,  views  on,  15,  84, 

89,  93,  313. 
Political  Economy  Club,  election  to 

the,  215. 

Political  views,  15,  23. 
Pooley's  case,  241,  250-278,  285. 
Practicality,  47,  et  seq.,  98,  230,  231, 

236,  237 ;  little,  of  genius,  47. 
Profession,  ideas  of  taking  a,  15,  17- 

19,  37. 
Pyramids,  the,  385. 

RAS  el  'Ain,  445. 
Reading,  Buckle's  course  of, 
as  a  child,  11 ;  great  power  of,  24, 
25,  39;  method  in,  39,  40;  while 
traveling,  54 ;  not  in  public  libra- 
ries, 136. 

Religion  of  Buckle,  14,  23, 198 ;  effect 
of,  on  progress,  162,  166,  198. 

Residence  of  Buckle,  11,  24,  38. 

Royal  Institution,  lecture  at  the,  216 
-218. 

Royal  Society  of  Literature,  66. 

Ruge,  Dr.,  295. 

Russia,  the  "  History  of  Civilization  " 
in,  124,  334,  335. 

QIAMARITANS,  the,  440. 

O    Skepticism,  in  what  sense  used 

by  Buckle,  141. 
Schooling  of  Buckle,  12,  13. 
Schools,  girls',  312,  313. 


502 


INDEX. 


Scotch  history,  135,  174,  239,  240. 

Sculpture,  views  on,  36. 

Shirreff,  Miss,  acquaintance  with,  75 ; 
correspondence  with,  76,  78,  80,  81, 
82,  83,  85,  86,  87,  91,  93,  95,  96,  97, 
98, 107, 108, 110,  111,  117, 118, 124, 
219,  221,  223,  225,  226,  227,  229, 
232,  233,  234,  235,  236,  261,  264, 
280,  296,  317. 

Sidon,  446. 

Sinai,  convent  of,  415 ;  ascent  of,  415, 
416. 

"Skye,"336,  340. 

Smoking,  love  of,  45,  46. 

Sociability,  65,  66. 

Spanish  history,  135, 136, 174 ;  Trans- 
iation  of  the  "  History  of  Civiliza- 
tion," 332,  334,  397. 

Species,  the  origin  of,  93,  292. 

Spencer's  "  First  Principles,"  306. 

Spirit  rapping,  346,  347,  377,  380. 

Stanley,  opinion  of  Dean,  346,  454. 

Style,  study  given  to,  41,  42 ;  beauty 
of  Buckle's,  42,  43  ;  advice  on,  80, 
81. 

Suez,  408. 

Suez  canal,  the,  421. 

Suicide,  the  sinfulness  of,  305. 

Sutton,  stay  at,  336-351. 

TEA,  how  to  make,  48. 
Thackeray,  correspondence  with 
Mr.,  292. 
Thebes,  372,  385. 
Three  states,  Comte's  law  of  the,  193, 

210. 

Tiberias,  443,  444. 

Town  and  country,  comparison  be- 
tween, 63,  63,  64,  77,  90,  106,  333. 


Transcendentalism,  119,  et  seq.,  154, 

199. 
Translations,  place  of,  in  literature, 

109. 

Travel,  the  importance  of,  351. 
Tunbridge  Wells,  stay  at,  64,  107,  et 

seq.,  230,  292. 
Turquoise  mines,  414. 
Tyre,  445. 


U 


TILITARIANISM,  288, 345,365. 


~T~T~AXITY  worse  than  greediness, 

V     313. 
Vico  and  the  "  History  of  Civilization," 

200-205. 

Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  303. 
Voltaire  and  freedom,  253,  254. 


WADY  FEIRlN,  415. 
Wady  Ghurundel,  412. 

Wady  Magharah,  413. 

Wady  Mukatteb,  415. 

Wady  Taiyibeh,  412. 

War,  views  on,  73. 

Wheatstone,  correspondence  with  Sir 
Ch.,  130. 

Whitby,  stay  at,  332. 

Women,  and  education,  78,  79,  92, 
216,  229,  300,  312,  313,  324,  et  seq. ; 
lecture  on  the  influence  of,  216 ;  the 
rights  of,  242-244. 

Woodhead,  correspondence  with  Ma- 
jor, 63;  concerning  Major,  119; 
with  Mrs.,  244,  291,  332. 

Work,  power  of,  212. 


THE      END. 


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